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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924011411877
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
THE UNIVERSITY OP CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY
NBW TORE
THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LOHSOH
THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
TOETO, OaAK&, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, BBNDAI
THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY
BHANQHAl
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
A STUDY OF RACE RELATIONS
AND A RACE RIOT
BY
THE CHICAGO COMMISSION ON
RACE RELATIONS
^^^UViiiiiliu/,,
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO ILIilNOIS
U^'^^ LIBRARY
AfS
/02
COPYIUGHT 1922 By
The University of Chicago
All Rights Reserved
Published September 1922
Second Impression January 1923
Third Impression March 1923
uu
/
'•■ '' ',\
**■ Composed and Printed By "^V/^. **',
/ The University of Chicago Press '
r Cblcafi:o, Illinois, V.S.A. '
V'V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Foreword by Honorable Frank O. Lowden
Introduction
The Problem
Chapter I. The Chicago Riot, July 27-AuGUST 2, 1919
Background of the Riot .
The Beginning of the Riot .
Chronological Story of the Riot
Factors Influencing Growth of the Riot
Gangs and "Athletic Clubs
Types of Clashes
Crowds and Mobs
R\unor
Pohce
Militia
Deputy Sheriffs
Restoration of Order
Aftermath of the Riot
Outstanding Features of the Riot
Chapter II. Other Outbreaks in Illinois
Clashes in Chicago preceding the Riot of 19 19
Racial Outbreaks in Waukegan, May 31 and June 2, 1920
The "Abyssinian" Affair, June 20, 1920
The Barrett Murder, September 20, 1920
The Springfield Riot, August 14-15, 1908
East St. Louis Riots, May 28, and July 2, 1917
Chapter III. The Migration of Negroes from the South
Economic Causes of the Migration
Sentimental Causes of the Migration
Beginning and Spread of Migration
The Arrival in Chicago .
Adjustments to Chicago Life .
Migrants in Chicago
Efforts to Check Migration .
Chapter IV. The Negro Population of Chicago
Distribution and Density
Neighborhoods of Negro Residence
PAGE
ix
X
xiii
XV
xxiii
1-52
2
4
S
9
II
17
22
25
33
40
43
43
46
48
53-78
S3
57
59
64
67
71
79-105
80
84
86
93
94
97
103
106-151
106
108
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Adjusted Neighborhoods ^^^
"^ Non-adjusted Neighborhoods "3
Neighborhoods of Organized Opposition nS
Bombings 122
Trend of the Negro Population I3S
Outlying Neighborhoods 136
The Negro Community i39
Commerdal and Industrial Enterprises 140
Organizations for Social Intercourse 141
Religious Organizations 142
Social and Civic Agencies 146
Medical Institutions . . , 150
Chapter V. The Negro Housing Problem 152-230
General Living Conditions 152
Why Negroes Move . iS4
Room Crowding 156
Rents and Lodgers 162
How Negro Families Live 165
A Group of Family Histories 170
Physical Aspects of Negro Housing 184
Neighborhood Improvement Associations 192
Efforts of Social Agencies 193
Negroes and Property Depreciation 194
Financial Aspects of Negro Housing 215
Negroes as Home Owners 216
Financial Resources of Negroes 227
Chapter VI. Racial Contacts 231-326
Legal Status of Negroes in Illinois 232
Discrimination in Public Schools 234
Contacts in Chicago Public Schools 238
Physical Equipment of Schools 241
Retardation in Elementary Schools 256
Contacts in Recreation 271
Contacts in Transportation 297
Contacts in Other Relations 309
"Black and Tan" Resorts 323
Cultural Contacts 323
.^^^ Contacts in Co-operative Eflforts for Race Betterment .... 326
Chapter VII. Crime and Vicious Environment 327-356
Criminal Statistics 328
The Negro in the Courts 332
Bureau of Identification 335
Probation and Parole 335
Institutional Inquiry 338
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
PAGE
Negro Crime and Environment 341
Views of Authorities on Crime among Negroes 345
Chapter VIII. The Negro in Industry . 3S7-43S
Employment Opportunities and Conditions 357
Increase in Negro Labor since 1915 362
Classification of Negro Workers 364
Wages of Negro Workers 365
Women Employees in Industrial Establishments .... 367
Railroad Workers 369
Domestic Workers 370
Employers' Experience with Negro Labor 372
Negro Women in Industry 378
Industries Excluding the Negro 391
Relations of White and Colored Workers 393
Future of the Negro in Chicago Industries 400
Organized Labor and the Negro Worker 403
Pohcy of the American Federation of Labor and Other Federations 405
Unions Admitting Negroes to White Locals 412
Unions Admitting Negroes to Separate Co-ordinate Locals . . 417
Unions Excluding Negroes from Membership 420
The Negro and Strikes 430
Attitude and Opinions of Labor Leaders 432
Chapter IX. Public Opinion in Race Relations 436-519
A. opinions or whites and negroes
BeUefs Concerning Negroes .... 437
Primary BeUefs 438
Secondary Beliefs 443
Background of Prevailing Beliefs Concerning Negroes .... 443
Types of Sentiments and Attitudes 451
The Emotional Background 451
Abstract Justice . . 454
Traditional Southern Background 456
Group Sentiments . . 456
Attitudes Determined by Contacts 457
Self-Analysis by Fifteen White Citizens 459
PubHc Opinion as Expressed by Negroes 475
Race Problems 478
Abyssinians 480
A Negro and a Mob 481
Defensive Policies 484
Race Consciousness 487
Opinions of Fifteen Negroes on Definite Racial Problems . . . 493
Are Race Relations Improving ? 494
Opinions on Solution . , 495
Social Adjustments 502
viu TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGI
Negro Problems S^S
Defensive Philosophy 5°^
Segregation and Racial Solidarity S°9
Opinion-making 5^4
Chapter X. Public Opinion in Race Reiations 520-594
■ B. INSTRUMENTS OF OPINION-MAKING
The Press ... 520
General Survey of Chicago Newspapers 523
Intensive Study of Chicago Newspapers 531
Newspaper Policy Regarding Negro News ... . . 547
The Negro Press . 556
Classification of Articles . . 557
Negro Newspaper Policy 563
Rumor 568
Myths 577
Propaganda . 587
Conclusions 594
Chapter XI. Summary op the Report and Recommendations of the
Commission .... 595-651
The Chicago Riot 595
The Migration of Negroes from the South 602
The Negro Population of Chicago 605
Racial Contacts 613
Crime and Vicious Environment 621
The Negro in Chicago Industries 623
Public Opinion in Race Relations 629
Opinions of Whites and Negroes 629
Factors in the Making of Public Opinion 634
The Recommendations of the Commission ... 640
Appendix 652
Biographical Data of Members of the Commission 652
The Staff of the Commission 653
Epitome of Facts in Riot Deaths 655
Table Showing Number of Persons Injured in Chicago Riot by Date
and by Race 667
Index 669
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
rACING
PAGE
Whites and Negroes Leaving Twenty-ninth Street Beach . . . iii
Crowds Armed with Bricks Searching for a Negro ... .12
Whites Stoning Negro to Death 12
The Arrival oe the Police 12
Scenes from Fiee in Immigrant Neighborhood 16, 22, 28
Negroes Leaving Wrecked House in Riot Zone . . ... 16
Wrecked House or a Negro Family in Riot Zone 28
Negroes and Whites Leaving the Stock Yards . . . . 28
Negroes Being Escorted to Safety Zone 34
Searching Negroes for Arms in Police Station 34
Negroes Buying Provisions Brought into Their Neighborhood . . 40
The Militia and Negroes on Friendly Terms 4°
Negro Stock Yards Workers Receiving Wages ... . 44
Buying Ice from Freight Car -44
Milk Was Distributed for the Babies -48
Provisions Supplied by the Red Cross . . 48
Propaganda Literature Used by "Abyssinians" 60
After the "Abyssinian Murders" 64
Typical Plantation Homes in the South 80
Negro Family Just Arrived in Chicago 92
Negro Chuiich in the South 92
Racial Contacts among Children 108
A Savings Bank in the Negro Residence Area 112
CmiDREN AT Work in a Community Garden 112
Damage Done by a Bomb 128
A Negro Choral Society .... 136
Olivet Baptist Church 140
St. Mark's M.E. Church 140
Trinity M.E. Church and Community House 146
South Park M.E. Church 146
Pilgrim Baptist Church 146
The Chicago Urban League Building 150
The South Side Community Service Building 150
Homes Owned by Negroes on South Park Avenue 188
ix
X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACDIO
PAGE
An Abandoned Residence in the Prairie Avenue Block . . . .188
Homes Occxtpied and in Part Owned by Negroes 194
Homes Occupied by Negroes on Forest Avenue 202
Rear View of Houses Occupied by Negroes on Federal Street . 202
MosELEY School 242
Fabren School 248
Wendell Phillips High School 252
A Typical School Yard Playground in a White Neighborhood . .276
Beutner Playground 280
Field House Equipment at Beutner Playground 280
Negro Athletic Team in City-Wide Meet 280
Friendly Rivalry 280
Armour Square Recreation Center 286
Beutner Playground 286
A Negro Amateur Baseball Team 292
Negro Women and Girls Employed in a Lamp-Shade Factory . -378
Negro Women Employed on Power Machines 380
Negro Women and Girls in a Large Hat-making Concern . . . -384
OrncERS OF the Railway Men's Benevolent Industrial Association . 410
LIST OF MAPS
FACING
PAGI
The Chicago Riot 8
Distribution of Negro Population, 1910 106
Distribution of Negro Population, 1920 no
Proportion or Negroes to Total Population, 1910 116
Proportion or Negroes to Total Population, 1920 120
Homes Bombed 124
Negro Churches 144
Social Agenqes 148
Homes of White and Negro Employees 154
Types of Negro Housing 184
A Changing Neighborhood 212
Recreation Faciuties 272
Transportation Contacts, Morning 7:00 to 9:00 300
Transportation Contacts, Evening 4:00 TO 6:00 300
Houses of Prostitution, 1916 342
Houses of Prostitution, 1918 342
Resorts 346
Industrial Plants 360
/
FOREWORD
There is no domestic problem in America which has given thoughtful men
more concern than the problem of the relations between the white and the
Negro races. In earlier days the colonization of the Negro, as in Liberia, was
put forward as a solution. That idea was abandoned long ago. It is now
recognized generally that the two races are here in America to stay.
It is also certain that the problem will not be solved by methods of violence.
Every race riot, every instance in which men of either race defy legal authority
and take the law into their own hands, but postpones the day when the two
races shall live together amicably. The law must be maintained and enforced
vigorously and completely before any real progress can be made towards
better race relations.
Means must be found, therefore, whereby the two races can Uve together
on terms of amity. This will be possible only if the two races are brought to
understand each other better. It is believed that such understanding will
result in each having a higher degree of respect for the other, and that such
respect will form the basis for greatly improved relations between the races.
The Commission on Race Relations, composed of distinguished representa-
tives of both races, has made the most thorough and complete survey of the
race situation that I have seen anywhere. While its field of study was neces-
sarily limited to Chicago, the conditions there may be regarded as fairly
typical of conditions in other large cities where there is a large colored popu-
lation.
The report does not pretend to have discovered any new formula by which
all race trouble will disappear. The subject is too complex for any such simple
solution. It finds certain facts, however, the mere recognition of which will
go a long way towards alla3dng race feeling. It finds that in that portion of
Chicago in which colored persons have lived longest and in the largest numbers
relatively there has been the minimum of friction. This is a fact of the first
importance. For it tends to show that the presence of Negroes in large
numbers in our great cities is not a menace in itself.
xiv FOREWORD
There is one recommendation (No. 31) to which I desire to call special
attention: that a permanent local commission on race relations be created.
When as Governor of Illrtiois I withdrew troops from Chicago after the riots,
I was not at all persuaded that all danger of their recurrence was past. I kept
observers from the Adjutant General's office on the ground to watch for any
signs of fresh trouble. The Commission on Race Relations was appointed,
and conditions at once began to improve. The activities of this Commission,
composed of the best representatives of both races, were, as I believe, the
principal cause for this improved condition.
Causes of friction, insignificant in themselves, but capable of leading to
serious results, were discovered by the Commission and by its suggestion were
removed in time to avoid grave consequences. Gross exaggerations of some
fancied grievance by either the one race or the other were examined into and
were found to rest upon nothing else than idle rumor or prejudice. In the light
of truth which the Commission was able to throw upon the subject, these griev-
ances disappeared. In other words, misunderstanding, which had been so
prolific a source of trouble between the races, was greatly reduced.
The report contains reconmiendations, which, if acted upon, will make
impossible, in my opinion, a repetition of the appalling tragedy which brought
disgrace to Chicago in July of 1919.
Men may differ as to some of the conclusions reached, but all fair-minded
men must admit, I think, that the report of the Commission on Race Relations
is a most important contribution to this important subject.
Frank O. Lowden
INTRODUCTION
On Sunday, July 27, 1919, there was a clash of white people and Negroes
at a bathing-beach in Chicago, which resulted in the drowning of a Negro boy.
This led to a race riot in which thirty-eight lives were lost — twenty-three
Negroes and fifteen whites — and 537 persons were injured. After three days
of mob violence, affecting several sections of the city, the state militia was
called out to assist the poUce in restoring order. It was not until August 6
that danger of further clashes was regarded as past.
To discuss this serious situation and means of preventing its recurrence,
a group of eighty-one citizens, representing forty-eight social, civic, com-
mercial, and professional organizations of Chicago, met on August i, 1919,
at the Union League Club. Mr. Charles W. Folds, president of the Club,
presided. Brief addresses were made by Mr. H. H. Merrick, president of the
Chicago Association of Commerce, Dr. Graham Taylor, Miss Harriet Vittum,
Major John S. Bonner, Mr. Charles J. Boyd, and Rev. William C. Covert.
Resolutions were passed and given to the press, and the following letter
to the Governor of Illinois was authorized:
To His Excellency, Frank 0. Lowden
Governor of Illinois
Dear Sm: A meeting was held today at the Union League Club to take up the
matter of the present race riots.
This meeting was attended by 81 representatives of 48 prominent civic, profes-
sional and commercial organizations, such as Chicago Medical Association, Chicago
Bar Association, Federation of Churches, Association of Commerce, Packing House
Industries, Urban League, Woman's City Club, Chicago Woman's Club, Foreign
Language Division, representing foreign-bom population, etc.
A resolution was adopted unanimously, appointing the undersigned as a com-
mittee to wait upon you and ask that you appwint at your earliest convenience an
emergency state committee to study the psychological, social and economic causes
underlying the conditions resulting in the present race riot and to make such recom-
mendations as will tend to prevent a recurrence of such conditions in the future.
The committee would welcome an opportunity to meet you at any time convenient
to yourself and to talk over with you details and give you such information as has
been gathered through these various organizations.
Respectfully,
Charles W. Folds
Graham Taylor
William C- Graves
Harriet E. Vittum
T. Arnold Hill
Felk J. Strkyckmans
xvi INTRODUCTION
In response to this and other urgent requests by various citizens and
organizations, and pursuant to his personal knowledge of the situation derived
from investigations made by him in Chicago during the period of the riot,
Governor Lowden announced on August 20, 1919, the appointment of a
Commission on Race Relations, consisting of twelve members, six from each
race, as follows — Mr. Bancroft being designated by him as chairman:
Representing the white people: Edgar A. Bancroft, William Scott Bond,
Edward Osgood Brown, Harry Eugene Kelly, Victor F. Lawson, Julius Rosen-
wald.
Representing the Negro people: Robert S. Abbott, George Cleveland
Hall, George H. Jackson, Edward H. Morris, Adelbert H. Roberts, Lacey
Kirk Williams.'
In announcing the appointment of this Conmiission, Governor Lowden
made public the following statement:
I have been requested by many citizens and by many civic organizations in
Chicago to appoint a Commission to study and report upon the broad question of
the relations between the two races. These riots were the work of the worst element
of both races. They did not represent the great overwhelming majority of either race.
The two are here and wiU remain here. The great majority of each realizes the
necessity of their living upon terms of cordial good wiU and respect, each for the other.
That condition must be brought about.
To say that we cannot solve this problem is to confess the failure of self-
government. I offer no solution of the problem. I do know, however, that the
question cannot be answered by mob violence. I do know that every time men,
white or colored, take the law into their own hands, instead of helping they only
postpone the settlement of the question. When we admit the existence of a problem
and courageously face it, we have gone half-way toward its solution.
I have with the utmost care, in response to the requests above set forth, appointed
a Commission to undertake this great work. I have sought only the most represent-
ative men of the two races. I have not even asked them whether they had views as
to how the question could be met. I have asked them only to approach the difficult
subject with an open mind, and in a spirit of fairness and justice to all. This is a
tribunal that has been constituted to get the facts and interpret them and to find a
way out. I beUeve that great good can come out of the work of this Commission.
I ask that our people, white and colored, give their fullest co-operation to the
Commission. I ask, too, as I have a right to ask, that both races exercise that
patience and seK-restraint which are indispensable to seH-govemment while we are
working out this problem.
During an absence of the chairman, due to ill health, Governor Lowden
requested Dr. Francis W. Shepardson, director of the State Department of
Registration and Education, to serve as acting chairman. On Mr. Ban-
croft's return and at the Commission's request, the Governor appointed
Dr. Shepardson a member and vice-chairman of the Commission.
' For biographical data see p. 652.
INTRODUCTION xvii
The Commission's first meeting was held on October 9, 1919. Nine other
meetings were held during the remainder of that year to canvass the possible
fields of inquiry, and to provide for the organization of studies and investiga-
tions.
The Commission was seriously handicapped at the outset by a complete
lack of funds. The legislative session of 1919 had ended before the riot, and
the next regular session was not to convene until January, 192 1. The Com-
mission felt that it could not with propriety seek to raise funds on its own
appeal. To meet this situation a group of citizens offered to serve as a
co-operating committee to finance the Commission's inquiry and the prepara-
tion and publication of its report. This Committee, consisting of Messrs.
James B. Forgan, chairman, Abel Davis, treasurer, Arthur Meeker, John J.
Mitchell, and John G. Shedd, gave effective aid, being most actively assisted
by Messrs. R. B. Beach and John F. Bowman, of the staff of the Chicago
Association of Commerce. Without the co-operation of these gentlemen and
the resulting financial assistance of many generous contributors the Com-
mission could not have carried on its work. It here expresses its most grateful
appreciation.
The Commission organized its staff, inviting Mr. Graham Romeyn Taylor,
as executive secretary, and Mr. Charles S. Johnson, as associate executive
secretary, to assume charge of the inquiries and investigations under its
direction. They began their work on December 7, 1919.
While the Commission recognized the importance of studying the facts
of the riot, it felt that even greater emphasis should be placed on the study
and interpretation of the conditions of Negro hfe in Chicago and of the relations
between the two races. Therefore, after a brief survey of the data already
collected and of the broad field for its inquiries, it organized into six com-
mittees, as follows: Committee on Racial Clashes, Committee on Housing,
Committee on Industry, Committee on Crime, Conamittee on Racial Contacts,
Committee on Public Opinion.
Along all these lines of inquiry information was sought in two general ways :
through a series of conferences or informal hearings, and through research
and field work carried on by a staff of trained investigators, white and Negro.
Thus both races were represented in the membership of the Commission,
in its executive secretaries, and in the field and office staff organized by the
executive secretaries.
It is not without significance that in securing office quarters the Com-
mission found several agents of buildings who decUned to make a lease when
they learned that Negroes as well as whites were among the prospective
tenants. They stated their objections as based, not upon their own preju-
dices, but upon the fear that other tenants would resent the presence of Negroes.
Office space at 118 North La Salle Street was leased to the Commission by the
L. J. McCormick estate, beginning February i, 1920. When these offices
xviii INTRODUCTION
were vacated, May i, 192 1, the agents of the estate informed the Commission
that no tenant of the building had complained of the presence of Negroes.
By March i, 1920, the staS of investigators had been organized and was
at work. The personnel was recruited as far as possible from social workers
of both races whose training and experience had fitted them for intelligent
and S3nn.pathetic handling of research and field work along the lines mapped
out by the Commission.'
The period of investigations and conferences or informal hearings lasted
until November, 1920. The work of compiHng material and writing the
various sections of the report had begun in October, 1920. Including its
business meetings and thirty conferences the Commission held more than
seventy-five meetings; forty of these were devoted to the consideration of
the text of the report.
The executive secretaries with their staff collected the materials during
1920, and soon after presented the first draft of a report. This was considered
and discussed by the Commission in numerous sessions, and the general out-
lines of the report were decided upon. Then a second draft, in accordance
with its directions, was prepared by subjects, and a copy was submitted to
each member of the Commission for suggestions and criticisms. Afterward
the Commission met and discussed the questions raised by the different
members, and determined upon the changes to be made in substance and form.
After the entire report had been thus revised, the Commission in many con-
ferences decided what recommendations to make. These recommendations,
with a summary of the report, were then prepared, and were reviewed by the
Commission after they had been sent to each member. After fuU consideration
they were further revised and then adopted by the Commission. In all these
conferences upon the report, all of the Commissioners, with one exception,
conferred frequently and agreed unanimously. Mr. Morris, on account of
his duties as a member of the Constitutional Convention, did not attend any
of these conferences upon the report, siunmary, or recommendations, and
does not concur in them.
The Commission received the cordial assistance of many agencies, organiza-
tions, and individuals. The Chicago Urban League placed at its disposal a
large amount of material from its files. It also gave a leave of absence to
the head of its Department of Research and Investigation, Mr. Charles S.
Johnson, the Commission's associate executive secretary. Many citizens,
representing widely divergent lines of interest, who were invited to attend
conferences held by the Commission, gave most generously of their time and
knowledge. The L. J. McCormick estate donated three months' office rent.
Messrs. George C. Nimmons & Company, architects, contributed valuable
services, including study and supervision by Frederick Jehnck of their office,.
■ The members of this staff, with the previous training and experience of each are
listed in the Appendix, p. 653.
INTRODUCTION xix
in preparing maps and charts designed to present most effectively data collected
by the Commission. The Federal Bureau of the Census made available
advanced data from the 1920-21 censuses. Superintendent Peter A. Morten-
sen and many principals and teachers in the Chicago public schools co-operated
in the extensive studies of race relations in the schools; and the Committee of
Fifteen provided a report showing important facts in the study of environment
and crime. The various park boards, many municipal, county, and state
officials, superintendents and others coimected with industrial plants, trades-
union officers, and leaders in many civic and social agencies greatly f aciUtated
investigations in their respective fields. To all these the Commission returns
sincere thanks. But, perhaps, the greatest debt of gratitude is due Mr.
Ernest S. Simpson, who generously and devotedly gave his spare time for
many months to the editing of this report.
The Commission's letter to Governor Lowden summarizing its work, and
his answer follow:
January i, 1921
Honorable Frank 0. Lowden
Governor of Illinois
Sir: FoUowing the race riot in Chicago in July and August, 1919, in which
fifteen white people and twenty-three Negroes were killed and very many of both
races were injured, you appointed us as a Commission on Race Relations "to study
and report upon the broad question of the relations between the two races.'' We
have completed the investigations planned as a basis for this study, and are now
preparing a final report of our findings, conclusions and recommendations. This
report wiU soon be ready.
The Commission began its work in October, 1919, and for eleven months has
had a staff of investigators assisting it in its activities. WhUe devoting much effort
to the study of the Chicago riot as presenting many phases of the race problem, the
Commission has placed greater emphasis upon the study of the conditions of life of
the Negro group in this community, and of the broad questions of race relations.
It therefore organized itself into six committees on the following subjects: Racial
Clashes, Housing, Industry, Crime, Racial Contacts, and Public Opinion.
In these fields the Commission's work has been done along two main lines:
(a) a series of conferences, at which persons believed to have special information
and experience relating to these subjects have been invited to give the Commission
the benefit of their knowledge and opinions;
(6) research and field work by a trained staff of investigators, both white and
Negro, to determine as acciurately as possible, from first-hand evidence, the actual
conditions in the above fields.
The series of conferences, numbering thirty, covered a wide range of topics, such
as: the race riot of 1919 as viewed by the police, the miUtia, the grand jury, and state's
attorney; race friction and its remedies; contacts of whites and Negroes in public
schools and recreation places; special educational problems of Negro children; Negro
housing, its needs, type, and financing, and its difficulties in mixed areas; Negro
XX INTRODUCTION
labor in relation to employers, fellow-workers, and trade unions; Negro women in
industry; the Negro and social agencies; Negro health; Negroes and whites in the
courts and in correctional institutions; and the Negro and white press in relation to
public opinion on race relations.
Of two hundred and sixty-three persons invited, one hundred and seventy-five
attended these conferences and presented their information and views. They
represented both races and various groups and viewpoints; they included educators
and teachers, real estate men, bankers, managers of industrial plants, housing experts,
trades-union leaders, social workers, physicians, park and playground directors,
judges, clergymen, superintendents of correctional and other institutions, police,
militia, and other public officials, and newspaper editors.
The research and field work done by the staff of investigators covered in general
the same broad range. The character is indicated by a bare outline of the work in
the six main fields:
Racial Clashes: igig Chicago riot, seventeen antecedent clashes; three minor
clashes in 1920; brief comparative study of Springfield liot in igo8 and East St.
Louis riot in 1917.
Racial Contacts: In schools, transportation lines, parks, and other recreation
places; contacts in mixed neighborhoods; adjustment of southern Negro families
coming to Chicago; survey of Negro agencies and institutions.
Housing: Negro areas in Chicago and their expansion 1910-1920; 274 family
histories showing housing experience, home life, and social back-ground, including
families from the South; 159 blocks covered in neighborhood survey; financing
Negro housing; depreciation in and near Negro areas; 52 house bombings, 1917-1920.
Industry: Data covering 22,448 Negroes in 192 plants; loi plants visited;
quality of Negro labor; the widening opportunities and chance for promotion studied;
special study of trades unions and the Negro worker.
Crime: PoUce statistics of arrests and convictions of Negroes and selected
nationaUties compared and analyzed for six years'; also juvenile court cases; 698
cases (one month) in three police courts studied, including detailed social data on
Negro cases; also 249 sex cases (two years) in criminal court; record of eleven penal
institutions; environmental survey of Negro areas.
Public Opinion: Files of white and Negro newspapers studied to analyze handling
of matters relating to race relations; study of rumor and its effects, and of racial
propaganda of white and Negro organizations.
We believe that the large volume of information collected will prove, when
properly set forth, of great value not only in Chicago but in other communities
where pubhc-spirited citizens are endeavoring to establish right relations between
the two races. This end can be attaiued only through a more intelligent appreciation
by both races of the gravity of the problem, and by their earnest efforts toward a
better mutual understanding and a more sympathetic co-operation.
Hoping that our appreciation of the trust you have reposed in us may appear
in some measure in the aid our report may give toward working out better race
relations, we are. Very respectfully yours,
(Signed by members of the Commission and its Executive Secretaries)
' In the final revision of the report, the Commission decided that the police statistics
were, as a rule, too unreliable to be made a basis of conclusions.
INTRODUCTION xxi
State oe Illinois
oltice of the governor
Springfield
January 3, 1921
My dear Mr. Bancroft:
I have received and read with great interest your letter of January ist trans-
mitting to me a detailed statement of the work of the Chicago Commission on Race
Relations appointed by me after the race riot in Chicago in 1919, which is signed by
yourself as chairman and by the other members of the Commission.
I am greatly pleased to know that the Commission has been able to accomplish
so much through its investigations and that there has been such hearty co-operation
on the part of many citizens to make the inquiry in this important field as valuable
as possible.
I shall look forward with more than ordinary interest to the appearance of the
completed report in printed form. I suggest that the Commission arrange for its
publication as soon as possible in order that your findings and recommendations
may be made available to all students of race relations in our country.
I desire to express to you and through you to the members of the Commission
my great appreciation of the service which you have rendered to the people of Chicago
and of Illinois in connection with the Commission. I have been advised from time
to time of your continuing interest, your fidelity in attendance upon the meetings of
the Commission, and your earnest desire to render as accurate a judgment as possible.
Yours very sincerely,
(Signed) Frank O. Lowden
Hon. Edgar A. Bancroft
Chairman, Chicago Commission on Race Relations
111 accordance with Governor Lowden's suggestion the Commission here-
with presents its report, with findings and recommendations, hoping that it
may prove of service in the efforts to bring about better relations between the
white and Negro races.
.r
THE PROBLEM
The relation of whites and Negroes in the United States is our most grave
and perplexing domestic problem. It involves not only a difference of race —
which as to many immigrant races has been happily overcome — but wider
and more manifest differences in color and physical features. These make
an easy and natural basis for distinctions, discriminations, and antipathies
arising from the instinct of each race to preserve its type. Many white
Americans, while technically recognizing Negroes as citizens, cannot bring
themselves to feel that they should participate in government as freely as
other citizens.
Countless schemes have been proposed for solving or dismissing this
problem, most of them impracticable or impossible. Of this class are such
proposals as: (i) the deportation of 12,000,000 Negroes to Africa; (2) the
estabUshment of a separate Negro state in the United States; (3) complete
separation and segregation from the whites and the estabUshment of a caste
system or peasant class; and (4) hope for a solution through the dying out
of the Negro race. The only effect of such proposals is to confuse thinking
on the vital issues involved and to foster impatience and intolerance.
Our race problem must be solved in harmony with the fundamental law
of the nation and with its free institutions. These prevent any deportation
of the Negro, as well as any restriction of his freedom of movement within
the United States. The problem must not be regarded as sectional or pohtical,
and it should be studied and discussed seriously, frankly, and with an open mind.
It is important for our white citizens always to remember that the Negroes
alone of all our immigrants came to America against their will by the special
compelling invitation of the whites; that the institution of slavery was intro-
duced, expanded, and maintained in the United States by the white people
and for their own benefit; and that they likewise created the conditions that
followed emancipation.
Our Negro problem, therefore, is not of the Negro's making. No group
in our population is less responsible for its existence. But every group is
responsible for its continuance; and every citizen, regardless of color or racial
origin, is in honor and conscience bound to seek and forward its solution.
Centuries of the Negro slave trade and of slavery as an institution have
created, and are often deemed to justify, the deep-seated prejudice against
Negroes. They placed a stamp upon the relations of the two races which it
will require many years to erase. The memory of these relations has pro-
foundly affected and still affects the industrial, commercial, and social life
of the southern states.
xxiv THE PROBLEM
The great body of anti-Negro public opinion, preserved in the Uterature
and traditions of the white race during the long, unhappy progress of the
Negro from savagery through slavery to citizenship, has exercised a persistent
and powerful effect, both conscious and unconscious, upon the thmking and
the behavior of the white group generally. Racial misunderstanding has been
fostered by the ignorance and indifference of many white citizens concerning
the marvelous industry and courage shown by the Negroes and the success
they have achieved in their fifty-nine years of freedom.
The Negro race must develop, as all races have developed, from lower to
higher planes of Uving; and must base its progress upon industry, efficiency,
and moral character. Training along these Unes and general opportunities
for education are the fundamental needs. As the problem is national in its
scope and gravity, the solution must be national. And the nation must make
sure that the Negro is educated for citizenship.
It is of the first importance that old prejudices against the Negroes, based
upon their misfortunes and not on their faults, be supplanted with respect,
encouragement, and co-operation, and with a recognition of their heroic
struggles for self-improvement and of their worthy achievements as loyal
American citizens.
Both races need to understand that their rights and duties are mutual
and equal, and that their interests in the common good are identical; that
relations of amity are the only protection against race clashes; that these
relations cannot be forced, but will come naturally as the leaders of each
race develop within their own ranks a realization of the gravity of this
problem and a vital interest in its solution, and an attitude of confidence,
respect, and friendliness toward the people of the other race.
All our citizens, regardless of color or racial origin, need to be taught by
their leaders that there is a common standard of superiority for them all in
self-respect, honesty, industry, fairness, forbearance, and above all, in generous
helpfulness. There is no help or healing in appraising past responsibilities,
or in present apportioning of praise or blame. The past is of value only as
it aids in understanding the present; and an understanding of the facts of
the problem — a magnanimous understanding by both races — ^is the first step
toward its solution.
CHAPTER I
THE CHICAGO RIOT
July 27 -August 2, 1919
Thirty-eight persons killed, 537 injured, and about 1,000 rendered homeless
and destitute was the casualty list of the race riot which broke out in Chicago
on July 27, 1919, and swept uncontrolled through parts of the city for four
days. By August 2 it had yielded to the forces of law and order, and on
August 8 the state militia withdrew.
A clash between whites and Negroes on the shore of Lake Michigan at
Twenty-ninth Street, which involved much stone-throwing and resulted in
the drowning of a Negro boy, was the beginning of the riot. A policeman's
refusal to arrest a white man accused by Negroes of stoning the Negro boy was
an important factor in starting mob action. Within two hours the riot was
in fuU sway, had scored its second fatality, and was spreading throughout
the south and southwest parts of the city. Before the end came it reached
out to a section of the West Side and even invaded the "Loop," the heart of
Chicago's downtown business district. Of the thirty-eight killed, fifteen
were whites and twenty-three Negroes; of 537 injured, 178 were whites, 342
were Negroes, and the race of seventeen was not recorded.
In contrast with many other outbreaks of violence over racial friction
the Chicago riot was not preceded by excitement over reports of attacks on
women or of any other crimes alleged to have been committed by Negroes.
It is interesting to note that not one of the thirty-eight deaths was of a woman
or girl, and that only ten of the 537 persons injured were women or girls.
In further contrast with other outbreaks of racial violence, the Chicago riot
was marked by no hangings or burnings.
The rioting was characterized by much activity on the part of gangs of
hoodlums, and the clashes developed from sudden and spontaneous assaults
into organized raids against Ufe and property.
In handling the emergency and restoring order, the police were effectively
reinforced by the state militia. Help was also rendered by deputy sheriffs,
and by ex-soldiers who volunteered.
In nine of the thirty-eight cases of death, indictments for murder were
voted by the grand jury, and in the ensuing trials there were four convictions.
In fifteen other cases the coroner's jury recommended that unknown members
of mobs be apprehended, but none of these was ever found.
The conditions underlying the Chicago riot are discussed in detail in other
sections of this report, especially in those which deal with housing, industry,
2 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
and racial contacts. The Commission's inquiry concerning the facts of the
riot included a critical analysis of the 5,584 pages of the testimony taken by
the coroner's jury; a study of the records of the office of the state's attorney;
studies of the records of the PoUce Department, hospitals, and other institutions
with reference to injuries, and of the records of the Fire Department with
reference to incendiary fires; and interviews with many public officials and
citizens having special knowledge of various phases of the riot. Much informa-
tion was also gained by the Commission in a series of four conferences to which
it invited the foreman of the riot grand jury, the chief and other commanding
officers of the Police Department, the state's attorney and some of his assistants,
and officers in command of the state militia diuring the riot.
Background of the riot.— The Chicago riot was not the only serious outbreak
of interracial violence in the year following the war. The same summer
witnessed the riot in Washington, about a week earlier; the riot in Omaha,
about a month later; and then the week of armed conffict in a rural district
of Arkansas due to exploitation of Negro cotton producers.
Nor was the Chicago riot the first violent manifestation of race antagonism
in Illinois. In 1908 Springfield had been the scene of an outbreak that brought
shame to the community which boasted of having been Lincoln's home. In
1917 East St. Louis was torn by a bitter and destructive riot which raged
for nearly a week, and was the subject of a Congressional investigation that
disclosed appalling underlying conditions.
This Commission, while making a thorough study of the Chicago riot,
has reviewed briefly, for comparative purposes, the essential facts of the
Springfield and East St. Louis riots, and of minor clashes in Chicago occurring
both before and after the riot of 1919.
Chicago was one of the northern cities most largely afEected by the migra-
tion of Negroes from the South during the war. The Negro population
increased from 44,103 in 1910 to 109,594 in 1920, an increase of 148 per cent.
Most of this increase came in the years 1916-19. It was principally caused
by the widening of industrial opportunities due to the entrance of northern
workers into the army and to the demand for war workers at much higher
wages than Negroes had been able to earn in the South. An added factor was
the feeling, which spread like a contagion through the South, that the great
opportunity had come to escape from what they felt to be a land of discrimina-
tion and subserviency to places where they could expect fair treatment and
equal rights. Chicago became to the southern Negro the "top of the world."
The effect of this influx of Negroes into Chicago industries is reviewed in
another section of this report.' It is necessary to point out here only that fric-
tion in industry was less than might have been expected. There had been a
few strikes which had given the Negro the name of "strike breaker." But
the demand for labor was such that there were plenty of jobs to absorb all the
, ■ Pages infra.
THE CHICAGO RIOT 3
white and Negro workers available. This condition continued even after
the end of the war and demobilization.
In housing, however, there was a different story. Practically no new
building had been done in the city during the war, and it was a physical impos-
sibility for a doubled Negro population to Uve in the space occupied in 1915.
Negroes spread out of what had been known as the "Black Belt" into neighbor-
hoods near-by which had been exclusively white. This movement, as described
in another section of this report, developed friction, so much so that in the
"invaded" neighborhoods bombs were thrown at the houses of Negroes who
had moved in, and of real estate men, white and Negro, who sold or rented
property to the newcomers. From July i, 1917, to July 27, 1919, the day
the riot began, twenty-four such bombs had been thrown. The poKce had
been entirely unsuccessful in finding those guilty, and were accused of making
Uttle effort to do so.
A third phase of the situation was the increased poUtical strength gained
by Mayor Thompson's faction in the Republican party. Negro politicians
affiliated with this faction had been able to sway to its support a large propor-
tion of the voters in the ward most largely inhabited by Negroes. Negro
aldermen elected from this ward were prominent in the activities of this
faction. The part played by the Negro vote in the hard-fought partisan
struggle is indicated by the fact that in the Repubhcan primary election on
February 25, 1919, Mayor Thompson received in this ward 12,143 votes,
while his two opponents, Olson and Merriam, received only 1,492 and 319
respectively. Mayor Thompson was re-elected on April i, 1919, by a pluraUty
of 21,622 in a total vote in the city of 698,920; his vote in this ward was
15,569, to his nearest opponent's 3,323, and was therefore large enough to control
the election. The bitterness of this factional struggle aroused resentment
against the race that had so conspicuously allied itself with the Thompson side.
As part of the background of the Chicago riot, the activities of gangs of
hoodlums should be cited. There had been friction for years, especially along
the western boundary of the area in which the Negroes mainly Uve, and
attacks upon Negroes by gangs of young toughs had been particularly frequent
in the spring just preceding the riot. They reached a climax on the night of
June 21, 1919, five weeks before the riot, when two Negroes were murdered.
Each was alone at the time and was the victim of unprovoked and particularly
brutal attack. Molestation of Negroes by hoodlums had been prevalent in
the vicinity of parks and playgrounds and at bathing-beaches.
On two occasions shortly before the riot the forewarnings of serious
racial trouble had been so pronounced that the chief of police sent several
himdred extra policemen into the territory where trouble seemed imminent.
But serious violence did not break out until Sunday afternoon, July 27, when
the clash on the lake shore at Twenty-ninth Street resulted in the drowning
of a Negro boy.
4 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
The beginning of the riot. — Events followed so fast in the train of the drown-
ing that this tragedy may be considered as marking the beginning of the riot.
It was four o'clock Sunday afternoon, July 27, when Eugene Williams,
seventeen-year-old Negro boy, was swimming offshore at the foot of Twenty-
ninth Street. This beach was not one of those publicly maintained and
supervised for bathing, but it was much used. Although it flanks an area
thickly inhabited by Negroes, it was used by both races, access being had by
crossing the railway tracks which skirt the lake shore. The part near Twenty-
seventh Street had by tacit understanding come to be considered as reserved
for Negroes, while the whites used the part near Twenty-ninth Street. Walking
is not easy along the shore, and each race had kept pretty much to its
own part, observing, moreover, an imaginary boundary extending into the
water.
Williams, who had entered the water at the part used by Negroes, swam
and drifted south into the part used by the whites. Immediately before his
appearance there, white men, women, and children had been bathing in the
vicinity and were on the beach in considerable nimibers. Four Negroes
walked through the group and into the water. White men summarily ordered
them off. The Negroes left, and the white people resumed their sport. But
it was not long before the Negroes were back, coming from the north with
others of their race. Then began a series of attacks and retreats, counter-
attacks, and stone-throwing. Women and children who could not escape
hid behind debris and rocks. The stone-throwing continued, first one side
gaining the advantage, then the other.
WiUiams, who had remained in the water during the fracas, found a
railroad tie and clung to it, stones meanwhile frequently striking the water
near him. A white boy of about the same age swam toward him. As the white
boy neared, WiUiams let go of the tie, took a few strokes, and went down.
The coroner's jury rendered a verdict that he had drowned because fear of
stone-throwing kept him from shore. His body showed no stone bruises,
but rumor had it that he had actually been hit by one of the stones and
drowned as a result.
On shore guilt was immediately placed upon a certain white man by
several Negro witnesses who demanded that he be arrested by a white policeman
who was on the spot. No arrest was made.
The tragedy was sensed by the battUng crowd and, awed by it, they
gathered on the beach. For an hour both whites and Negroes dived for the
boy without results. Awe gave way to excited whispers. "They" said he
was stoned to death. The report circulated through the crowd that the
police officer had refused to arrest the murderer. The Negroes in the crowd
began to mass dangerously. At this crucial point the accused policemaa
arrested a Negro on a white man's complaint. Negroes mobbed the white
officer, and the riot was under way.
THE CHICAGO RIOT 5
One version of the quarrel which resulted in the drowning of Williams was
given by the state's attorney, who declared that it arose among white and
Negro gamblers over a craps game on the shore, "virtually under the protection
of the poUce officer on the beat." Eyewitnesses to the stoil'e-throwing clash
appearing before the coroner's jury saw no gambling, but said it might have
been going on, but if so, was not visible from the water's edge. The crowd
undoubtedly included, as the grand jury declared, "hoodlums, gamblers, and
thugs," but it also included law-abiding citizens, white and Negro.
This charge, that the first riot clash started among gamblers who were
under the protection of the police officer, and also the charge that the pohce-
man refused to arrest the stone-thrower were vigorously denied by the police.
The policeman's star was taken from him, but after a hearing before the
Civil Service Commission it was returned, thus officially vindicating him.
The two facts, the drowning and the refusal to arrest, or widely circulated
reports of such refusal, must be considered together as marking the inception
of the riot. Testimony of a captain of poUce shows that first reports from the
lake after the drowning indicated that the situation was calming down. White
men had shown a not altogether hostile feeling for the Negroes by assisting
in diving for the body of the boy. Furthermore a clash started on this isolated
spot could not be augmented by outsiders rushing in. There was every possi-
bihty that the clash, without the further stimulus of reports of the policeman's
conduct, would have quieted down.
Chronological story of the riot. — After the drowning of WiUiams, it was
two hours before any further fatalities occurred. Reports of the drowning
and of the alleged conduct of the policeman spread out into the neighborhood.
The Negro crowd from the beach gathered at the foot of Twenty-ninth Street.
As it became more and more excited, a group of officers was called by the
policeman who had been at the beach. James Crawford, a Negro, fired into
the group of officers and was himseK shot and kiUed by a Negro policeman
who had been sent to help restore order.
During the remainder of the afternoon of July 27, many distorted rumors
circulated swiftly throughout the South Side. The Negro crowd from Twenty-
ninth Street got into action, and white men who came in contact with it were
beaten. In aU, four white men were beaten, five were stabbed, and one was
shot. As the rumors spread, new crowds gathered, mobs sprang into activity
spontaneously, and gangs began to take part in the lawlessness.
Farther to the west, as darkness came on, white gangsters became active.
Negroes in white districts suffered severely at their hands. From 9:00 p.m.
until 3:00 A.M. twenty-seven Negroes were beaten, seven were stabbed, and
four were shot.
Few clashes occurred on Monday morning. People of both races went
to work as usual and even continued to work side by side, as customary,
without signs of violence. But as the afternoon wore on, white men and
6 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
boys Uving between the Stock Yards and the "Black Belt" sought maUcious
amusement in directing mob violence against Negro workers returning home.
Street-car routes, especially transfer points, were thronged with white
people of all ages. Trolleys were pulled from wires and the cars brought
under the control of mob leaders. Negro passengers were dragged to the
street, beaten, and kicked. The police were apparently powerless to cope
with these numerous assaults. Four Negro men and one white assailant
were kiUed, and thirty Negro men were severely beaten in the street-car
clashes.
The "Black Belt" contributed its share of violence to the record of Monday
afternoon and night. Rumors of white depredations and killings were current
among the Negroes and led to acts of retaUation. An aged Italian peddler,
one Lazzeroni, was set upon by young Negro boys and stabbed to death.
Eugene Temple, white laundryman, was stabbed to death and robbed by three
Negroes.
A Negro mob made a demonstration outside Provident Hospital, an institu-
tion conducted by Negroes, because two injured whites who had been shooting
right and left from a hurrying automobile on State Street were taken there,
Other mobs stabbed six white men, shot five others, severely beat nine more,
and killed two in addition to those named above.
Rumor had it that a white occupant of the Angelus apartment house had
shot a Negro boy from a fourth-story window. Negroes besieged the building.
The white tenants sought police protection, and about loo policemen, including
some mounted men, responded. The mob of about 1,500 Negroes demanded
the "culprit," but the poUce failed to find him after a search of the building.
A flying brick hit a policeman. There was a quick massing of the poUce, and
a volley was fired into the Negro mob. Four Negroes were killed and many
were injured. It is believed that had the Negroes not lost faith in the white
pohce force it is hardly likely that the Angelus riot would have occurred.
At this point, Monday night, both whites and Negroes showed signs of
panic. Each race grouped by itself. Small mobs began systematically in
various neighborhoods to terrorize and kill. Gangs in the white districts
grew bolder, finally taking the offensive in raids through territory "invaded"
by Negro home seekers. Boys between sixteen and twenty-two banded
together to enjoy the excitement of the chase.
Automobile raids were added to the rioting Monday night. Cars from
which rifle and revolver shots were fired were driven at great speed through
sections inhabited by Negroes. Negroes defended themselves by "sniping''
and volley-firing from ambush and barricade. So great was the fear of these
raiding parties that the Negroes distrusted aU motor vehicles and frequently
opened fire on them without waiting to learn the intent of the occupants.
This t3^e of warfare was kept up spasmodically all Tuesday and was resumed
with vigor Tuesday night.
|B»^
jtv»>»'Ti>'Ufm{
THE CHICAGO RIOT 7
At midnight, Monday, street-car clashes ended by reason of a general
strike on the surface and elevated lines. The street-railway tie-up was com-
plete for the remainder of the week. But on Tuesday morning this was a
new source of terror for those who tried to walk to their places of employment.
Men were killed en route to their work through hostile territory. Idle men con-
gregated on the streets, and gang-rioting increased. A white gang of soldiers
and sailors in uniform, augmented by civilians, raided the "Loop," or down-
town section of Chicago, early Tuesday, killing two Negroes and beating
and robbing several others. In the course of these activities they wantonly
destroyed property of white business men.
Gangs sprang up as far south as Sixty-third Street in Englewood and in
the section west of Wentworth Avenue near Forty-seventh Street. Premedi-
tated depredations were the order of the night. Many Negro homes in mixed
districts were attacked, and several of them were burned. Furniture was
stolen or destroyed. When raiders were driven ofi they would return again
and again until their designs were accomphshed.
The contagion of the race war broke over the boundaries of the South
Side and spread to the Italians on the West Side. This community became
excited over a rumor, and an Italian crowd kUled a Negro, Joseph Lovings.
Wednesday saw a material lessening of crime and violence. The "Black
Belt" and the district immediately west of it were still storm centers. But
the peak of the rioting had apparently passed, although the danger of fresh
outbreaks of magnitude was stiU imminent. Although companies of the
militia had been mobilized in nearby armories as early as Monday night,
July 28, it was not until Wednesday evening at 10:30 that the mayor yielded
to pressure and asked for their help.
Rain on Wednesday night and Thursday drove idle people of both races
into their homes. The temperature fell, and with it the white heat of the
riot. From this time on the violence was sporadic, scattered, and meager.
The riot seemed well under control, if not actually ended.
Friday witnessed only a single reported injury. At 3:35 a.m. Saturday
incendiary fires burned forty-nine houses in the immigrant neighborhood
west of the Stock Yards. Nine hundred and forty-eight people, mostly
Lithuanians, were made homeless, and the property loss was about $250,000.
Responsibility for these fires was never fixed. The riot virtually ceased on
Saturday. For the next few days injured were reported occasionally, and by
August 8 the riot zone had settled down to normal and the mihtia was with-
drawn.
Growth of the riot. — ^The riot period was thirteen days in length, from
Sunday, July 27, through Thursday, August 8, the day on which the troops
were withdrawn. Of this time, only the first seven days witnessed active
rioting. The remaining days marked the return toward normal. In the seven
active days, rioting was not continuous but intermittent, being furious for
8 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
hours, then fairly quiescent for hours. The first three days saw the most
acute disturbance, and in this span there were three main periods: 4:00 p.m.
Sunday tiE 3:00 a.m. Monday; 9:00 a.m. Monday till 9:00 a.m. Tuesday;
uoon Tuesday till midnight. This left two long mtervals of comparative
quiet, six hours on Monday and three hours on Tuesday. On the fourth day,
Wednesday, there were scattered periods of rioting, each of a few hours'
duration. Thus Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning was the longest
stretch of active rioting in the first four days.
For the most part the riot was confined to the South Side of the city.
There were two notable exceptions, the district north and west of the south
branch of the Chicago River and the "Loop" or downtown business district.
A few isolated clashes occurred on the North Side and on the extreme West
Side, but aside from these the area covered was that shown on the accompanying
outline map.
For the purposes of discussion it is convenient to divide the riot area into
seven districts. The boundaries in some instances are due to the designation
of Wentworth Avenue by the poUce as a boundary west of which no Negroes
should be allowed, and east of which no whites should be allowed.
I. "Black Belt." From Twenty-second to Thurty-ninth, inclusive; Went-
worth Avenue to the lake, exclusive of Wentworth; Thirty-ninth to
Fifty-fifth, inclusive; Clark to Michigan, exclusive of Michigan.
II. Area contested by both Negroes and whites. Thirty-ninth to Fifty-fifth,
inclusive; Michigan to the lake.
III. Southwest Side, including the Stock Yards district; south of the Chicago
River to Fifty-fifth; west of Wentworth, including Wentworth.
rV. Area south of Fifty-fifth and east of Wentworth.
V. Area south of Fifty-fifth and west of Wentworth.
VI. Area north and west of the Chicago River.
Vn. "Loop" or business district and vicinity.
In the district designated as the "Black Belt" about 90 per cent of the
Negroes Uve. District II, the "contested area," is that in which most of the
bombings have occurred. Negroes are said to be "invading" this district.
Extension here instead of into District III, toward the Stock Yards neighbor-
hood, may be explained partly by the hostility which the Irish and Polish
groups to the west had often shown to Negroes. The white hoodliun element
of the Stock Yards district, designated as III, was characterized by the state's
attorney of Cook County, when he remarked that more bank robbers, pay-roll
bandits, automobile bandits, highwaymen, and strong-arm crooks come from
this particular district than from any other that has come to his notice during
seven years of service as chief prosecuting official.*
In District IV and V, south of Fifty-fifth Street, Negroes live in small
communities surrounded by white people or are scattered through white
" Carl Sandburg, The Chicago Race Riots, chap, i, p. 1. Harcourt, Brace & Howe.
THE CHICAGO RIOT 9
neighborhoods. District VI has a large Italian population. District VII is
Chicago's wholesale and retail center.
On only one day of the riot were all these districts involved in the race
warfare. This was Tuesday. On Sunday Districts I, III, and IV suffered
clashes; on Monday all but District VI were involved; on Tuesday the entire
area was affected; on Wednesday District VII was not included, and District
VI witnessed only one clash; on Thursday District IV was again normal, and
Districts II, V, and VII were comparatively quiet; during the remainder of
the week only the first three districts named were active.
The worst clashes were in Districts I and III, and of those reported injured,
34 per cent received their wounds in the "Black Belt," District I, and 41
per cent on the Southwest Side, in the district including the Stock Yards,
District III.
Factors contributing to the subsidence of the riot were the natural
reaction from the tension, efforts of pohce and citizens to curb the rioters, the
entrance of the miUtia on Wednesday, and last, but perhaps not least, a heavy
rain.
The longest period of violence without noticeable lull was 9:00 a.m. Monday
to 9:00 A.M. Tuesday. On Tuesday the feehng was most intense, as shown
by the nature of the clashes. Arson was prevalent on Tuesday for the first
time, and the property loss was considerable. But judging by the only definite
index, the number of dead and injured, Monday exceeded Tuesday in violence,
showing 229 injured and eighteen dead as against 139 injured and eleven
dead on the latter day. While it is apparent that no single hour or even day
can be called the peak of the riot, the height of violence clearly falls within
the two-day period Monday, July 28, and Tuesday, July 29.
The change in the nature of the clashes day by day showed an increase
in intensity of feeling and greater boldness in action. This development
reached its peak on Tuesday. Later came a decHne, sporadic outbursts
succeeding sustained activity.
Factors inUuencing growth of the riot. — ^After the attacks had stopped,
about 3 :oo a.m. Monday, they did not again assume serious proportions until
Monday afternoon, when workers began to return to their homes, and idle
men gathered in the streets in greater numbers than during working hours.
The Stock Yards laborers are dismissed for the day in shifts. Negroes coming
from the Yards at the 3:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and later shifts were met by white
gangs armed with bats and clubs. On Tuesday morning men going to work,
both Negro and white, were attacked.
The main areas of violence were thoroughfares and natural highways
between the job and the home. On the South Side 76 per cent of aU the
injuries occurred on such streets. The most turbulent corners were those on
State Street between Thirty-first and Thirty-ninth, on Cottage Grove Avenue
at Sixty-third Street, on Halsted Street, at Thirty-fifth and Forty-seventh
lo THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
streets and on Archer Avenue at Thirty-fifth Street. Injuries at these spots
were distributed as follows:'
Injuries Deaths
State Street —
at Thirty-first 7
between Thirty-first and Thirty-fifth 2
at Thirty-fifth 9 i
between Thirty-fifth and Thirty-ninth 19 2
at Thirty-ninth 3
Cottage Grove Avenue —
at Sixty-third Street 8
Halsted Street —
at Thhrty-fifth 8
at Forty-seventh S
Archer Avenue —
at Thirty-fifth Street 7
Streets which suffered most from rioting were —
State 61 6
TMrty-fifth 5° S
Forty-seventh 32 2
Halsted 32
Thirty-first 29 i
The street-car situation had an effect upon the riot both before the strike
and after it. Because of a shortage of labor at the time, the surface-street-cai
company had put on a number of inexperienced men. This may account
for the inefi&ciency of some crews in handling attacked cars.
An example is the case of Henry Goodman who was killed in an attack on
a Thirty-ninth Street car. The car was stopped at Union Avenue by a truck
suspiciously stalled across the tracks. White men boarded the car and beat
and chased six or eight Negro passengers. When asked under oath to whom
the truck directly in front of him belonged and what color it was, the motorman
rephed, "I couldn't say." When asked what time his car left the end of the
line and whether or not he had seen any Negroes hit on the car, he answered,
"I didn't pay any attention." The motorman said he made a report of the
case, but it could not be found by anyone in the street-car company's office.
The conductor of this car had been given orders to warn Negroes that there
was rioting in the district through which the car ran. He did not do this.
He ignored the truck. No names of witnesses were secured. The motorman
was an extra man and had run on that route only during the day of the attack.
In the case of John Mills, a Negro who was killed as he fled from a Forty-
seventh Street car, the motorman left the car while Negroes were being beaten
' Thirty-first, Thirty-fifth, and Thirty-ninth streets are chosen for special notice because
these are transfer points for north and south cars to east and west lines. The figures given
are for the first three days of the riot only. Other days showed too few injuries to allow
accurate conclusions.
THE CHICAGO RIOT ii
inside it. Neither motorman nor conductor took names of witnesses or
attempted to fix a description of the assailants in mind.
When B. F. Hardy, a Negro, was killed on a street car at Forty-sixth
Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, the motorman and conductor offered no
resistance and did not get names or descriptions.
The testimony of the conductor and motorman on a car attacked at
Thirty-eight Street and Ashland Avenue was clear and showed an attempt to
get all information possible. They secured names of witnesses. One member
of the crew had been in the service of the Chicago Surface Lines for ten years,
and the other for twelve years.
The tie-up of the street railways affected the riot situation by forcing
laborers to walk, making them more liable to assault ui the hostile districts,
by keeping many workers from jobs, turning out on the streets hundreds of
idle men, and by increasing the use of automobiles.
Tuesday morning two white men were killed while walking to work through
the Negro area, and two Negroes were killed while going through the white area.
Curiosity led the idle to the riot zone. One such was asked on the witness
stand why he went. "What was I there for? Because I walked there — ^my
own bad luck. I was curious to see how they did it, that is all."
Under cover of legitimate use gangs used motor vehicles for raiding.
Witnesses of rioting near Ogden Park said trucks unloaded passengers on
Racine Avenue, facihtating the formation of a mob. On Halsted Street
crowds of young men rode in trucks shouting they were out to " get the niggers."
An automobile load of young men headed off He3rwood Thomas, Negro, and
shot him, at Taylor and Halsted streets, as he was walking home from work.
Beside daily routine and the street-car situation, the weather undoubtedly
had an influence in the progress of the riot. July 27 was hot, 96 degrees, or
fourteen points above normal. It was the culmination of a series of days
with high temperattires around 95 degrees, which meant that nerves were
strained. The warm weather of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday also kept
crowds on the streets and sitting on doorsteps until late at night. Innocent
people trying to keep cool were injured when automobiles raced through the
streets, the occupants firing to right and left. Wednesday night and Thiursday
it rained. Cool weather followed for the rest of the week.
Gangs and "athletic clubs." — Gangs and their activities were an important
factor throughout the riot. But for them it is doubtful if the riot would have
gone beyond the first clash. Both organized gangs and those which sprang
into existence because of the opportunity afforded seized upon the excuse
of the first conflict to engage in lawless acts.
It was no new thing for youthful white and Negro groups to come to
violence. For years, as the sections of this report dealing with antecedent
clashes and with recreation show, there had been clashes over baseball grounds,
swimming-pools in the parks, the right to walk on certain streets, etc.
12 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Gangs whose activities figured so prominently in the riot were all white
gangs, or "athletic clubs." Negro hoodlums do not appear to form organized
gangs so readily. Judges of the municipal court said that there are no gang
organizations among Negroes to compare with those found among young whites.
The Stock Yards district, just west of the main Negro area, is the home
of many of these white gangs and clubs; it is designated as District HI in the
discussion of the riot growth. The state's attorney, as aheady indicated
(see p. 8), referred to the many young offenders who come from this particular
district. A poUce detective sergeant who investigated the riot cases in this
district said of this section, "It is a pretty tough neighborhood to try to get
any information out there; you can't do it." A policeman on the beat in
the district said, "There is the CanaryviUe bxmch in there and the Hamburg
bunch. It is a pretty tough hole in there."
There was much evidence and talk of the pohtical "puU" and even leader-
ship of these gangs with reference to their activities in the riot. A member
of "Ragen's Colts" just after the riot passed the word that the "coppers"
from downtown were looking for club members, but that "there need be no
fear of the coppers from the station at the Yards for they were all fixed and told
to lay off on club members." During the riot he claimed they were well
protected by always having a "cop" ride in one of the automobiles so every-
thing would be "O.K." in case members of the gang were picked up. Another
member of the club said he had been " tipped off by the poUce at the Yards
to clean out and keep away from the usual hangouts because investigators
were working out of Hoyne's and out of Brundage's offices, and were checking
up on the activities of the 'Ragen's' during the riot."
The foreman of the August grand jury which investigated the riot cases
said in testifying before the Commission:
The lead we got to investigate the Forty-seventh Street district was from an
anonymous letter stating that Ragen had such influence in the Forty-seventh Street
police station that these individuals were allowed to go without due process of law.
I didn't beheve that was a fact in this particular instance. We did learn that
Ragen was a great power in that district and at the time of our investigation we
learned that some of the "Ragen's Colts" had broken into the police station and
pried open a door of a closet where they had a good deal of evidence in the nature of
weapons of prisoners concealed, and they got all of this evidence out of there without
the poUce knowing anything about it.
The station referred to is at Forty-seventh and Halsted streets. Gangs
operated for hoiurs up and down Forty-seventh Street, Wells, Princeton, Shields,
and Wentworth avenues and Federal Street without hindrance from the poUce.
A judge of the municipal court said in testimony before the Commission:
"They seemed to think they had a sort of protection which entitled them to
go out and assault anybody. When the race riots occurred it gave them
something to satiate the desire to inflict their evil propensities on others."
WHITES STONING NEGRO TO DEATH
Actual photograph of the killing of a Negro by the mob shown above after chasing him into his li»
iCHING FOR A NEGRO
THE ARRIVAL OF THE POLICE
;ked from the stairway by a brick. Two men are here shown hurling bricks at the dying Negro
THE CHICAGO RIOT 13
Besides shouting as they rode down the streets in trucks that they were
out to "get the niggers, " they defied the law in other ways. When the miUtia
men came on the scene on the fourth day of the riot, they testified to trouble
with these gangsters. One of the colonels testified before the Commission:
"They didn't like to be controlled. They would load up heavy trucks with
rowdies and try to force through the Unes. They'd come tooting their horns
and having back pressure explosions like gatUng guns."
Some of the "athletic club" gangsters had criminal records. L — W—
was accused of being one of the leaders of the gang around Forty-seventh and
WeUs streets. He himself said boastfully, "I have been arrested about
fifteen times for 'disorderly' and never was arrested with a knife or a gun."
Several witnesses said they had seen him during the riot one night leading
the mob and brandishing a razor and the next night waving a gun. He was
not arrested. D — H — , seventeen years old, was identified as being active
in the rioting near Forty-seventh Street and ForrestviUe Avenue. His defense
was that he was not closer to the Negro assaulted than across the street, but
because he was arrested the year before for a "stick-up" people looked "funny"
at him when anything happened. R — C — was accused of having been
implicated in the arson cases on Shields Avenue. When his mother was
interviewed, she said she knew nothing of the rioting, but said her son was at
the time in the county jail, "but not for that." W — G — was identified
many times as having taken part in the arson on Wentworth Avenue. He was
indicted for both arson and conspiracy to riot. Two years before the riot he
had been arrested for larceny.
All who discussed gangs before the Commission said that most of the
members were boys of seventeen to twenty-two years of age. Witnesses
before the coroner's juries testified to the youth of the participants in mobs.
Many of the active assailants of street cars were boys. In the case of the Negro
Hardy who was kiUed on a street car, it was said that the murderers were
not over twenty years, and many were nearer sixteen. In the raids in the
Ogden Park district the participants were between the ages of fifteen and
twenty. The raid just west of Wentworth Avenue, where a number of houses
were much damaged, was perpetrated by boys of these ages. The attacking
mob on Forty-third Street near ForrestviUe Avenue, was led by boys of eighteen
to twenty-one. The only two hoodlums caught participating in the outrages
in the "Loop," the downtown business district, were seventeen and about
twenty-one. Most of those arrested on suspicion in the arson cases were
taken before the boys' court. Negroes involved in many cases as assailants
were also youthful. The young Negro boys who killed Lazzeroni were fourteen
to eighteen; those who killed Pareko and Perel were about sixteen.
A member of "Ragen's Colts " is said to have boasted that theh territory ex-
tended from Cottage Grove Avenue to Ashland Avenue and from Forty-third
Street to Sixty-third Street. At Sixty-third Street and Cottage Grove Avenue
14 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
they were said to have attacked a colored man in a restaurant and thrown him
out of the window. It was reported that trucks of a downtown store, each
carrymg about thirty men, yelling that they were "Ragen's Colts" and that
"Ragen's bunch" were going to clean out the community, came to Sixtieth
Street and Racine Avenue. Some of the boys who took part in the assault
upon Negroes at Sixtieth and Ada streets were reputed to be members of
"Ragen's Colts." The club, according to some of its own members, operated
with automobiles from which they managed to "bump off a number of Niggers."
A truck driver said he had driven some "Ragen's Colts" to Forty-seventh
and Halsted streets, where they "dropped" foiur or five people, then he drove
them back to the "Ragen's Colts" clubhouse at Fifty-second and Halsted
streets. "And, " he says, " they had plenty of guns and ammunition." State's
Attorney Hoyne, however, said that no evidence could be found that "Ragen's
Colts" had a store of arms. Members of the Illinois Reserve MiKtia reported
that they had been threatened by "Ragen's Colts" that they would be picked
off one by one when they got off duty.
One of the most serious cases of rioting in which members of "Ragen's
Colts" were reported to be impHcated was the raid upon Shields Avenue,
where there were nine houses occupied by Negroes. At 8 : 30 Tuesday evening
200 or 300 gangsters started at one corner and worked through the block,
throwing furniture out of windows and setting fires. A white man who owned
a house on this street which he rented to Negroes says that after the raid
several young men warned him, "If you open your mouth against 'Ragen's'
we will not only burn your house down but we wiU 'do' you."
The Lorraine Club, according to five witnesses, was also implicated in
arson and raids upon homes of Negroes. Their operations, according to reports,
were on Forty-seventh Street and on Wells Street and Wentworth Avenue
between Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth streets. Negroes were chased,
guns were fired, windows broken, front doors smashed in, furniture destroyed,
and finally homes were burned. AU Negro famiHes were driven out. The
attack was planned, and news of its imminence spread abroad in the morning.
Rioting started in the afternoon of July 29) and culminated late that night.
There was no interference from the police at any time. It was said that one
of the leaders of the gang who had an express and coal yard carried away
furniture in his wagon. Another was recognized as a youth who had shot a
Negro woman during the afternoon. They are reported to have attacked an
undertaker and friends who came to remove the body of a dead Negro. Three
of the rioters were arrested upon the identification of several people, but two
were released in the municipal court, and the third had a "no bill" retiurned
before the grand jury. One was released because no witnesses were present
to prosecute him. The witnesses said they were not notified.
A member of the Lorraine Club denied that his club had anything to
do with this riot, but said it was Our Flag Club that did the "dirty work."
THE CHICAGO RIOT 15
Our Flag Club is located farther east on Forty-seventh Street near Union
Avenue. When John Mills was dragged from a street car at this point and
killed, a pohceman recognized several of the club's members in the crowd,
but vouchsafed the opinion that they were not part of the aggressive mob,
" for they did not run as did the others when the patrol came down the street."
Another policeman said he had never had any trouble with the club.
Eight members of the Sparklers' Club were seen at the fire at 5919 Went-
worth Avenue, a building in which two Negro famihes Hved. The arson is
reported to have been planned in a neighboring cigar store. One of the boys
put waste soaked in gasoUne under the porch and ran. Two of them threw
oil in the building and two others ht it. It took three attempts to make a
fire at this place. Each time it was started the Fire Department put it out.
Two of the boys are declared to have stolen phonograph records and silverware
from the house. A lad not a member of the club was with them at the fire.
Afterward one of the boys warned him, "Watch your dice and be careful or
you won't see your home any more." Six boys were held for arson, in connec-
tion with this affair; one was discharged in the boys' court, and the cases of
two others were nolle prossed. In connection with their arrest the Chicago
Tribune of August 15, 1919, said:
Evidence that organized bands of white youths have been making a business of
burning Negro dwellings was said to have been handed to Attorney General Brundage
and Assistant State's Attorney Irwin Walker Chief of Police Garrity, also
informed of the Fire Marshal's charges, declared several so-called athletic clubs in
the Stock Yards district may lose their charters as a result.
A report about the Aylward Club was to the effect that as the Negroes
came from the Stock Yards on Monday, a gang of its members armed with
clubs was waiting for them and that each singled out a Negro and beat him,
the poUce looking on.
The names of a number of gang ringleaders were reported by investigators.
For illustration, L. Dennis, a Negro of 6059 Throop Street, was attacked
on the night of Monday, July 28, by a mob led by three roughs whose names
were learned and whose loafing place was at Sixty-third Street and Racine
Avenue. A mob of thirty white men who shot Francis Green, Negro, eighteen
years old, at Garfield Boulevard and State Street had a club headquarters in
the vicinity of Fifty-fourth Street and their "hangout" was at the corner of
Garfield Boulevard and State Street.
Other clubs mentioned in riot testimony before the coroner's jiury, but
not in connection with riot clashes, are the Pine Club, the Hamburgers, the
Emeralds, the White Club, Favis Grey's, and the Mayflower. The pohce
closed the clubs for a period of several months after the riot. There were then
in existence a number of Negro gambling clubs, and the state's attorney
declared that it was the colored gamblers who "started this shooting and
tearing around town," and that "as soon as they heard the news that the boy
i6 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Williams was drowned, they filled three or four machines and started out to
shoot."
A saloon-keeper near Wabash Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street, one of the
leaders of these colored gamblers, was identified by a white woman as bemg
in an automobile with five other Negroes exhorting colored men to riot after
the drowning of Williams. The next day he was arrested in an automobile
with other colored men who were said to be shooting into the homes of white
people. They were arrested but were discharged by Judge Barasa at the
Stock Yards court.
Pohce raids were made on some of the "Black Belt" clubs on August 23.
At the Ranier Club, 3010 South State Street, two revolvers, one razor,
one "black-jack," seven cartridges, one cattle knife, and one ordinary knife
were found. At the Pioneer Club, 3512 South State Street, eight guns, four
packages of cartridges and twenty-four knives were taken. A raid at 2700
South State Street netted four guns, one hunting-knife, and fifty-eight cartridges
and bullets.
The foreman of the grand jury which investigated the riots discussing the
"athletic" and "social" clubs before the Commission, said:
Most of them were closed immediately after the riots. There were "Ragen's
Colts," as they were known, concerning whom the grand jury were particularly anxious
to get something concrete, although no evidence was presented that convicted any
of the members of that club. There were the Hamburgers, another athletic dub,
the Lotus Club, the Mayflower, and various clubs. These were white clubs.
Asked if they really were athletic clubs, he rephed:
I think they are athletic only with their fists and brass knuckles and guns. We
had Mr. Ragen before the grand jury, and he told us of the noble work that they
were doing in the district, that Father Brian, who had charge of these boys, taught
them to box and how to build themselves up physically, and they were doing a most
noble work, and you would think that Ragen was a public benefactor. During the
dehberations of this grand jury a number of anonymous letters were written with
reference to "Ragen's Colts," and most of the explanations of the fact that they
failed to put their names on these letters were that they were afraid they would lose
their lives.
The grand jury included in its report this reference to the gang and club
phase of the riot:
The authorities employed to enforce the law should thoroughly investigate clubs
and other organizations posing as athletic and social clubs which really are organiza-
tions of hoodlums and criminals formed for the purpose of furthering the interest of
local poHtics. In the opinion of this jury many of the crimes committed in the
"Black Belt" by whites and the fires that were started back of the Yards, which,
however, were credited to the Negroes, were more than likely the work of the gangs
operating on the Southwest Side under the guise of these clubs, and the jury believes
that these fires were started for the purpose of inciting race feeling by blaming same
on the blacks. These gangs have apparently taken an active part in the race riots,
and no arrests of their members have been made as far as this jury is aware.
SCENES FROM FIRE IN IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORHOOD "BACK OF THE YARDS'
NEGROES UNDER PROTECTION OF POLICE LEAVING WRECKED HOUSE
IN RIOT ZONE
THE CHICAGO RIOT 17
The coroner's jury which conducted inquests into the thirty-eight riot
deaths said:
The suggestion has also been made that race hatred and tendency to race rioting
had its birth and was fostered in the numerous social and athletic clubs made up of
young men and scattered throughout the city. We doubt this, but if in part true, it
calls for the inspection and control of such clubs. These clubs are here, they are
popular, they take the place of the disappearing saloon and poolroom. Properly
governed and controlled, they should be encouraged and fostered and, when necessary,
discipUned.
Hoodlums are the nucleus of a mob — the young, idle, vicious, and in many
instances degenerate and criminal, impatient of restraint of law, gather together, and
when fortified by sufficient Uumbers, start out on a mission of disorder, law-breaking,
destruction, and murder. Mobs, white or colored, grow about a nucleus of this
character.
Types of clashes. — Racial outbreaks are often characterized by hangings,
burnings, and mutilations, and frequently the cause given for them is a reported
Negro attack upon a white woman. None of these features appeared in the
Chicago riot. An attempted hanging was reported by a white detective
but was unsubstantiated. A report that Joseph Lovings, one of the Negroes
killed in the riot, was burned, was heralded abroad and even carried to the
United States Senate, but it was false. The coroner's physicians found no
burns on his body.
Reports of assaults upon women were at no time mentioned or even hinted
at as a cause of the Chicago riot, but after the disorder started reports of such
crimes were pubUshed in the white and Negro press, but they had no foundation
in fact.
Of the ten women wounded in the Chicago riot, seven were white, two were
Negroes, and the race of one is unknown. AU but one of these ten injuries
appears to have been accidental. The exception was the case of Roxy Pratt,
a Negro woman who, with her brother, was chased down Wells Street from
Forty-seventh by gangsters and was seriously wounded by a bullet. No cases
of direct attacks upon white women by Negro men were reported.
The Commission has the record of mnnerous instances, principally during
the first twenty-four hours, where individuals of opposing races met, knives
or guns were drawn, and injury was inflicted without the element of mob
stimulus.
On Monday mobs operated in sudden, excited assaults, and attacks on
street cars provided outstanding cases, five persons being killed and many
injured. Nicholas Kleinmark, a white assailant, was stabbed to death by a
Negro named Scott, acting in self-defense. Negroes killed were Hemy Good-
man at Thirtieth and Union streets; John Mills, on Forty-seventh Street
near Union; Louis Taylor at Root Street and Wentworth Avenue; and B. F.
Hardy at Forty-sixth Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. All died from
beatings.
i8 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Crowds armed themselves with stones, bricks, and baseball bats and
scanned passing street cars for Negroes. Finding them, trolleys were pulled
off wires and entrance to the cars forced. ' Negroes were dragged from under
car seats and beaten. Once off the car the chase began. If possible, the
vanguard of the mob caught the fleeing Negroes and beat them with clubs. If
the Negro outran the pursuers, stones and bricks brought him down. Some-
times the chase led through back yards and over fences, but it was always short.
Another type of race warfare was the automobile raids carried on by young
men crowded in cars, speeding across the dead line at Wentworth Avenue
and the "Black Belt," and firing at random. Crowded colored districts,
with people sitting on front steps and in open windows, were subjected to this
menace. Strangely enough, only one person was killed in these raids, Henry
Baker, Negro.
Automobile raids were reported wherever colored people had estabhshed
themselves, in the "Black Belt," both on the main business streets and in
the residence sections, and in the small community near Ada and Loomis
streets in the vicinity of Ogden Park.
These raids began Monday night, continued spasmodically all day Tuesday,
and were again prevalent that night. In spite of the long period, reports of
motorcycle poHcemen show no white raiders arrested. One suspected raiding
automobile was caught on State Street Tuesday night, after coUision with a
patrol wagon. One of the occupants, a white man, had on his person the
badge and identification card of a pohceman assigned to the Twenty-fourth
Precinct. No case was worked up against him, and the other men in the
machine were not heard of again in connection with the raid.
Most of the pohce motorcycle squad was assigned to the Stanton Avenue
station, which was used as poUce headquarters in the " Black Belt." Several
automobile loads of Negroes were arrested, and firearms were found either
upon their persons or in the automobUe.
In only two cases were Negroes aggressively rioting found outside of the
"Black Belt." One of these was the case of the saloon-keeper already men-
tioned, and the other was that of a deputy sheriff, who, with a party of other
men, said they were on the way to the Stock Yards to rescue some beleaguered
members of their race. It is reported that they wounded five white people
en route. Sheriff Peters said he understood that the deputy sheriff was
attacked by white mobs and fired to clear the crowd. He was not convicted.
"Sniping" was a form of retaliation by Negroes which grew out of the
automobile raids. These raiding automobiles were fixed upon from yards,
porches, and windows throughout the "Black Belt." One of the most serious
cases reported was at Thirty-first and State streets, where Negroes barricaded
the streets with rubbish boxes. Motorcycle Pohceman Cheney rammed
through and was hit by a bullet. His companion officer following was knocked
from his machine and the machine pxmctured with bullets.
THE CHICAGO RIOT 19
After the wounding of Policeman Cheney and Sergeant Murray, of the
Sixth Precinct, poHcemen made a thorough search of all Negro homes near
the scene of the "sniping." Thirty-four Negroes were arrested. Of these,
ten were discharged, ten were found not guilty, one was given one day in jail,
one was given five days in jail, one was fined and put on probation, two were
fined $10 and costs, one was fined $25; six were given thirty days each in the
House of Correction, and one, who admitted firing twice but said he was firing
at one of the automobiles, was sentenced to six months in the House of Correc-
tion. His case was taken to the appellate court.
Concerted retahatory race action showed itself in the Italian district
around Taylor and Loomis streets when rumor said that a little Itahan girl
had been killed or wounded by a shot fired by a Negro. Joseph Lovings, an
innocent Negro, came upon the excited crowd of ItaUans. There was a short
chase through back yards. Finally Lovings was dragged from his hiding-
place in a basement and brutally murdered by the crowd. The coroner
reported foiurteen bullet wounds on his body, eight still having bullets in them;
also various stab wounds, contusions of the head, and fractures of the skull.
Rumor made the tale more hideous, saying that Lovings was burned after
gasohne had been poured over the dead body. This was not true.
This same massing of race against race was shown in a similar clash between
Itahans and Negroes on the North Side. The results here, however, were not
serious. It was reported in this last case that immediately after the fracas
the Negroes and ItaUans were again on good terms. This was not true in
the neighborhood of the Lovings outrage. Miss Jane Addams, of Hull-House,
which is near the scene of Lovings' death, testified before the Commission
that before the riot the Itahans held no particular animosity toward Negroes,
for those ia the neighborhood were mostly from South Italy and accustomed
to the dark-skinned races, but that they were developing antipathy. In the
September following the riot, she said the neighborhood was still full of wild
stories so stereot3rped in character that they appeared to indicate propaganda
spread for a purpose.
The gang which operated in the "Loop" was composed partly of soldiers
and sailors in uniform; they were boys of from seventeen to twenty- two,
out for a "rough" time and using race prejudice as a shield for robbery. At
times this crowd numbered 100. Its depredations began shortly after 2 : 00 a.m.
Tuesday. The La Salle Street railroad station was entered twice, and Negro
men were beaten and robbed. About 3:00 a.m. activities were transferred
to Wabash Avenue. In the hunt for Negroes one restaurant was wrecked
and the vandahsm was continued in another restaurant where two Negroes
were found. One was severely injured and the other was shot down. The
gangsters rolled the body into the gutter and turned the pockets inside out; they
stood on the corner of Wabash Avenue and Adams Street and divided the spoils,
openlyboasting later of having secured $52, a diamond ring, a watch, and a brooch.
20 THE NEGRO EST CHICAGO
Attacks'in the "Loop" continued as late as ten o'clock Tuesday morning,
Negroes being chased through the streets and beaten. Warned by the Pinker-
ton Detective Agency, business men with stores on Wabash Avenue came to
protect their property. The rioting was reported to the pohce by the restaurant
men. Policemen rescued two Negroes that morning, but so many poKcemen
had been concentrated in and near the "Black Belt" that there were only
a few patrohnen in the whole "Loop" district, and these did not actively
endeavor to cope with the mob. In the meantime two Negroes were killed
and others injured, while property was seriously damaged.
Tuesday's raids marked the peak of daring during the riot, and their
subsidence was as gradual as their rise. For the next two days the gangs
roamed the streets, intermittently attacking Negro homes. After Tuesday
midnight their operations were not so open or so concerted. The riot gradually
decreased in feeling and scope till the last event of a serious nature occurred,
the incendiary fires back of the Stock Yards.
While there is general agreement that these fires were incendiary, no clue
could be found to the perpetrators. Negroes were suspected, as aU the houses
burned belonged to whites. In spite of this fact, and the testimony of thirteen
people who said they saw Negroes in the vicinity before or during the fires,
a rumor persisted that the fires were set by white people with blackened faces.
One of the men living in the burned district who testified to seeing a motor
truck filled with Negroes said, when asked about the color of the men, " Sure,
I know they were colored. Of course I don't know whether they were
painted." An early miUc-wagon driver said that he saw Negroes come out
of a barn on Forty-third Street and Hermitage Avenue. Immediately after-
ward the barn burst into flames. He ran to a policeman and reported it.
The policeman said he was "too busy" and "it is aU right anyway." One of
the colonels commanding a regiment of miHtia said he thought white people
with blackened faces had set fixe to the houses; he got this opinion from talking
to the police in charge of that district.
Miss Mary McDowell, of the University of Chicago Settlement, which is
located back of the Yards, said in testimony before the Commission:
I don't think the Negroes did bum the houses. I think the white hoodlums
burned them. The Negroes weren't back there, they stayed at home after that
Monday. When we got hold of the firemen confidentially, they said no Negroes
set fire to them at all, but the newspapers said so and the people were full of fear.
All kinds of mythical stories were afloat for some time.
The general superintendent of Armour & Company was asked, when testi-
fying before the Commission, if he knew of any substantial reason why
Negroes were accused of setting fires back of the Yards. He answered:
That statement was originated in the minds of a few individuals, radicals. It
does not exist in the minds of the conservative and thinking people of the community,
even those Uving in back of the Yards. They know better. I believe it goes without
THE CHICAGO RIOT 21
sajdng that there isn't a colored man, regardless of how little brains he'd have, who
would attempt to go over into the Polish district and set fire to anybody's house
over there. He wouldn't get that far.
The controlling superintendent of Swift & Company said he could not say it
from his own experience, but he understood there was as much friction between
the Poles and Lithuanians who worked together in the Yards as between the
Negroes and the whites. The homes burned belonged to Lithuanians. The
grand jury stated in its report: " The jury believes that these fires were started
for the pturpose of inciting race feeling by blaming same on the blacks."
The methods of attack used by Negroes and whites during the riot differed;
the Negroes usually clung to individual attack and the whites to mob action.
Negroes used chiefly firearms and knives, and the whites used their fists,
bricks, stones, baseball bats, pieces of iron, hammers. Among the white men,
69 per cent were shot or stabbed and 31 per cent were beaten; among the
Negroes almost the reverse was true, 35 per cent being shot and stabbed and
65 per cent beaten. A colonel in charge of a regiment of militia on riot duty
says they found few whites but many Negroes armed.
Arms and ammunition. — ^The foregoing figures and statements gave some
color to the belief persistent during and after the riot that Negroes had stores
of arms and ammunition. A lieutenant of police testified before the coroner's
jury that he had known in advance that the riot was coming because " there
were guns in every house out there; I knew they were there for a purpose."
He said he had heard that Negroes had been advised to arm themselves and
defend their homes, that the Constitution of the United States provided for
that. The state's attorney said before the Commission that prior to the
riot he had received reports from detectives of private agencies stating the same
thing. He was informed that Negroes readily got firearms from Gary, Indiana,
and that porters on the PuUman trains brought them in from outside places.
He further stated: "I am very definitely assxured of the fact that they were
arming and that there were more arms and weapons grouped in that general
district loosely termed the 'Black Belt' than any place else, and my informa-
tion is that conditions are that way now."
Dmring the riot there were frequent rumors that Negroes had broken into
the Eighth Regiment Armory for guns and ammunition, but all these rumors
were proved false.
Since the riot many tales have been told of stores of arms brought in by
P ullm an porters and by white prostitutes. Mexicans were reported to be
assisting Negroes in the manufacture of bombs and hand grenades. Lists of
addresses where ammunition was being stored have been gathered by detec-
tives, but not verified.
The same sort of rumors are found circulating among the Negroes in regard
to the arming of whites. It is said that such and such white men have great
boxes of guns and ammunition in the cellars of their homes, and that white
22 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
men are forming shooting clubs for the purpose of attacking Negroes in the
event of another riot. There are also widely believed stories that a department
store sold guns to white people before the riot but refused to sell to Negroes. It
was said that pawn shops sold to white people without permits from the police.
Crowds and mobs.— It may be observed that a crowd is merely a gathering
of people while a mob is a crowd with its attention so strongly fixed upon some
lawless purpose that other purposes are inhibited and it acts along the line
of the one purpose. During the riot many crowds of curiosity seekers were
transformed into vicious mobs when exciting rumors circulated and the sugges-
tion of vengeance was made by leaders. Such suggestion was frequently
accompanied by some daring act, stimulated by the excitement.
The mob in its entirety usually did not participate actively. It was one
in spirit, but divided in performance into a small active nucleus and a large
proportion of spectators. The nucleus was composed of young men from
sixteen to twenty-one or twenty-two years of age. Sometimes only four would
be active while fifty or 150 looked on, but at times the proportion would be as
great as twenty-five in 200 or fifty in 300. Fifty is the largest number reported
for a mob nucleus. This was in the case of John Mills and five other Negroes
who were beaten, dragged ofi a Forty-seventh Street car and chased, Mills
being killed. Here there were three degrees of crowd formation. First came
the nucleus of fifty active men who did the beating, chasing, and killing.
Closely aiding and abetting them were 300 or 400 others. After the Negroes
had been forced ofi the car and were being hunted through the neighborhood
a crowd of about 2,000 gathered and followed the vanguard of attackers
and spectators. These were present out of morbid curiosity, but sufficiently
imbued with the spirit of the mob not to interfere with the outrages.
The fact that children were frequently a part of mobs is one of the thought-
provoking facts of the Chicago riot. Psychologists say that impressions made
upon the child mind are forces which mold adult character to a great extent.
A number of children, some not more than four or five years old, swarmed
in front of the Forty-seventh Street car in the John Mills case and effectively
blocked it while men climbed aboard and sought out the Negroes. Children,
often witnesses of mob brutality, ran to where Negro victims had fallen and
pointed them out to the pohcemen who came up after the mobs had dispersed.
There were others, stiU children in mind, Negro boys of fifteen, accused
of murders. The enormity of their acts faded in the joy of describing their
weapons. "Fat had a club; it looked like a police club," said one, "it had
leather on it." " And the gun had a little picture of an owl on the side of it, "
said another describing a patched-up weapon that brought down a white
laboring-man who left a widow and eight children.
Among the spectators of mob violence were men, women, and children
of all ages; they included tradesmen, craftsmen, salesmen, laborers. Though
the spectators did not commit the crimes, they must share the moral responsi-
SCENES FROM FIRE IN IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORHOOD "RACK OF THE YARDS'
THE CHICAGO RIOT 23
bility. Without the spectators mob violence would probably have stopped
short of murder in many cases. An example of the behavior of the active
nucleus when out of sight of the spectators bears this out. George Carr,
Negro, was chased from a street car. He outstripped all but the vanguard
of the mob by climbing fences and hiding in a back yard. This concealed
him from the rest of the crowd, who by that time were chasing other Negroes.
The young men who followed Carr left him without striking a blow, upon his
mere request for clemency. In regard to the large non-active elements in
the crowds, the coroner said during the inquest, "It is just the swelling of
crowds of that kind that urges them on, because they naturally feel that they
are backed up by the balance of the crowd, which may not be true, but they
feel that way." Juror Ware said, "If sightseers were lending their aid and
assistance—" Juror Dillon interrupted and finished, "they ought to be
punished."
Often the " sightseers " and even those included in the nucleus did not know
why they had taken part in crimes the viciousness of which was not apparent
to them until afterward. A mere attempt to cover up participation would
have called forth excuses in testimony, but their answers show irritation at
the questioning, an inability to appreciate the situation, or complete bewilder-
ment. These excerpts from the testimony before the coroner's jury are
examples :
Hemy Woodman, in the mob at Sixtieth and Ada streets: "I don't know.
I didn't have any grudge against them [the Negroes]. But they [the mob]
seemed to have it in for the colored people. That is all."
Edward Klose, in the mob in front of 102 1 South State Street: "1 followed
the crowd, and I was in there because I was in there; they all bunched around
and what could I do ? "
One of the boys in the mob at Forty-third Street and ForrestviUe Avenue:
"I just wanted to see how things were getting along. We wanted to see
what the riot looked like."
Another of this same crowd: "I was following the rest. I wanted to see
what they were going to do."
Another from the same mob: "When they started to grab them [the
Negroes] in the lot, I rushed over directly to the conflict, by the colored men,
thinking I would see more on that side."
Mobs got under way for the commission of atrocities by having the direct
suggestion put to them by one of the leaders. With minds already prepared
by rumors circulating wherever crowds gathered, it was easy to arouse action.
A street car approaching and the cry, "Get the niggers!" was enough.
Prompt action clinched the idea, and the emotion of the attack narrowed the
field of consciousness. War cries aided in keeping emotion at fever heat.
"Get the nigger!" "KiU the black — of a 1" "Kill him!" These
were always an incident of mob action.
24 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Counter-suggestion was not tolerated when the mob was rampant. A
suggestion of clemency was shouted down with the derisive epithet, "Nigger
lover!" Silenced objectors made no further effort to thwart mob action.
There are no records of such persons notifying the pohce or persisting in their
remonstrances. Those whose objections took the form of action against
the mob met with violence. A white man, an instructor in music at the
University of Chicago, saw several white men attack a Negro who was waiting
for a street car at Sixty-third Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. Without
trying verbal remonstrance he struck out at them. His glasses were knocked
oS, and he was thrown into the middle of the street and left unconscious.
Not only did action once under way make interference hazardous, but it
brought into the mob circle a greater number of participants and increased
its energy. Five men jerked a trolley from the wires; ten men boarded the
car; twenty-five men chased and beat the routed Negroes. The mob action
grew faster than the increase in munbers. Ideas suggested by individual
members were quickly carried out in the action of all. The mob as a whole
and the individuals in it increased in fury, and a normal street crowd was
often turned from peaceful assemblage to brutal murder.
A sharp diversion of attention sometimes caused the dispersal of mobs.
An unexpected revolver shot was the most effective means of such diversion.
Here are some instances:
When Thomas Joshua, a Negro boy, was shot by PoHce Lieutenant Day,
a throng of Negroes came on the run from State Street. The officers, terrified,
escaped in a taxi, leaving their own automobile behind. The mob attempted
to make this car suffer vicariously for the escaped police officers. Other
policemen on the scene had difficulty in holding them back. Two shots were
heard on Federal Street. Immediately the crowd ceased its clamoring, left
the automobile, and apparently lost all thought of Lieutenant Day and ran
to Federal Street.
In the first mob of the riot, that at Twenty-ninth Street and Cottage
Grove Avenue, Negroes and policemen were struggling in a mass in the middle
of the street. A shot was fired by James Crawford, and the mob dispersed
from that corner.
A mob chased a Negro off a street car on Thirty-ninth Street near Wal-
lace. A poUceman with presence of mind followed the group into the alley,
fired a few shots in the air, and the crowd ran.
In no case where an unexpected shot was fired did it fail to scatter the mob,
but shooting which was part of the mob's own action did not seem to have
the same effect.
The course of one riotous mob can be traced in the activities of a certain
group of five white boys who Unked up with the riot excitement. They met
at the corner^^of Sixty-thurd Street and Ingleside Avenue at 8 : 30 Monday even-
ing. While they were tr3dng to decide which movie to attend, a taxi driver
THE CHICAGO RIOT 25
informed them of a riot at Forty-seventh Street. They took the " L " to Forty-
seventh Street and joined the mob. From then until 2:00 a.m. they were
active in mobs which assaulted Negroes at several points. Two were beaten
at Forty-seventh Street and the elevated railway. The mob then proceeded
to Fifty-first Street, but the poUce drove it back and it moved on to Indiana
Avenue and Forty-third Street, where a deputy sheriff held it off. Returning
here later it attacked a street car, beat a Negro, and then moved south on
Indiana Avenue, jerking trolleys from wires and assaulting passengers. At
Forty-fifth Street a shot fired by a police sergeant scattered it toward Forty-
third Street.
There the mob met Lieutenant Washington, a Negro ex-soldier, who, with
five Negro companions, was obhged to walk across town because car service
had been discontinued on account of the rioting. Lieutenant Washington,
testifjdng before the coroner's jury, gave this account of the affair:
After we crossed Grand Boulevard I heard a yell, "One, two, three, four, five,
six,'' and then they gave a loud cheer and said, "Everybody, let's get the niggers!
Let's get the niggers," and we noticed some of them crossed the street and walked
on up even with us. Therestof them were about ten or fifteen feet north . . . .there
were about between four and six men .... crossed the street and got in front of
us . . . . just before we got to ForrestviUe Avenue, about twenty yards, they swarmed
ia on us.
After this attack, in which Lieutenant Browning was shot, and Clarence
Metz, a white boy, was killed by a stab wound inflicted by Lieutenant Washing-
ton in self-defense, the mob moved on to Grand Boulevard, preceded by the
rumor that it intended to attack the homes of Negroes. A shot from a house
grazed a white lad, and the crowd went on, leaving the pohce to come and
arrest the Negroes who had fired.
Mob action in planned attacks was more daring, but not more dangerous.
Robbery was occasionally an accompaniment of spontaneous attack, but arson
never. Whether or not some of the organized raids could readily have been
stopped by the pohce, and the mobs dispersed, remains unproved. No
attempt was made either in the "Loop" district, in the Forty-seventh and
Wells streets districts or in the Sixty-ninth and Elizabeth streets district to
check the depredations.
Rumor. — ^Rumor was often the first step in crowd formation and often
opened the way for the sharp transformation of a crowd into a mob. The
circulation of rumors was partly due to natural repetition, often with increasing
embellishment, by one person to another of what he had heard or read. The
desire to tell a "big story" and create a sensation was no doubt an important
factor. With so much bitter feeling there was also considerable conscious
effort to provoke vengeful animosity by telling the worst that the teller had
heard or could imagine about the doings of the opposite race. The latter
t3^e of rumor circulation especially fed the riot from the beginning to the
26
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
final clash. It continues to be a constant menace to the friendly relations
of the races.
Newspapers were often supphed a source of rumor material through
mistake in fundamental facts, due either to misinformation or exaggeration.
In considering the newspaper handhng of riot news, it should be borne in
mind that the task was most difficult during a period of such excitement
and such crowding of events. Further it must be considered that white
reporters might very justifiably avoid the risk of seeking news where
crowds of Negroes had been roused to a high pitch of resentment against
whites. There were doubtless instances in which news was secured from
sources ordinarily trustworthy, but inaccurate during the riot. On the other
hand, it must be recognized that in a time of such excitement the effect of
sensational news on the popular mind is generally accentuated, and the responsi-
bihty for careful handhng of news is correspondingly greater. Where bias
is as pronounced as in a race riot it is of the utmost importance that essential
facts be stated correctly.
TABLE I
Date
Ndubee or Injdked as
Reported by the
'TEiBraiE" AND "Herald-
Examiner" DURING THE
First Fotis Days oe
Riot
White
Negro
Total
Facts as Later Obtained frou
Police, State's Attorney,
Hospital Reports, and Ouvet
Baptist Chorch, Covering
Each Day
White
Negro
Unknown
Total
July 27
July 28
July 29
July 30
Total
Percentage of total
29
64
62
40
19
60
72
21
124
134
61
10
71
55
20
31
152
80
20
46
229
139
42
19s
172
367
IS6
283
17
456
S3
47
34
62
Reports of numbers of dead and injured tended to produce a feeUng that
the score must be evened up on the basis of "an eye for an eye," a Negro
for a white, or vice versa. A most unfortunate impression may be made upon
an excited pubhc, Negro and white, by such erroneous reporting as the follow-
ing, in which newspapers, although they understated rather than exaggerated
the number of injuries, reported that 6 per cent more whites were injured
than Negroes, when the fact was that 28 per cent more Negroes were injured
than whites.
The Tribune of July 29 in a news item said that before 3 :oo a.m., July 29,
twenty persons had been killed, of whom thirteen were white and seven colored.
The truth was that of twenty killed, seven were white and thirteen colored.'
' Figures compaed from police reports, state's attorney reports, hospital reports, and
Olivet Baptist Church reports.
THE CHICAGO RIOT 27
The Daily News of July 29 gave the starting-point of the riot as the Angelus
clash, referring to it as " the center of the trouble." The same item mentioned
the spread to the Stock Yards district. The fact was that the assault upon
street cars in the Stock Yards district Monday afternoon and rimiors of
further brutahties there helped to start the Angelus riot Monday evening.'
The Tribune of July 30 stated that "the Black Belt continues to be the
center of conflict." Up to July 30 the "Black Belt" had witnessed 120
injuries, while the district west of Wentworth Avenue had had 139. For the
entire riot period the "Black Belt" furnished 34 per cent of the total mmiber
of injuries, and the district west of Wentworth Avenue 41 per cent.
Exaggeration in news reports, when popular excitement is at a high pitch,
is peculiarly dangerous. For the very reason that the essential fact seems
authenticated by the simultaneous appearance of the gist of the report in
several papers, the individual reader is the more inchned to beUeve such
exaggerations as may appear in his favorite journal.
Cases of exaggeration could be adduced from every Chicago newspaper,
but a t)^ical one is the report in the Chicago Daily News of July 29 concerning
the kiUing of Harold Brignadello, white. This item said:
Four women and nine men are held at the South Clark Street Station after their
arrest at 1021 South State Street, where they had a formidable arsenal.
Harry Signadell [sic], 35, white, died on the way to St. Luke's Hospital shortly
before noon after his buUet-riddled body had been picked up by the pohce in front of
1021 South State Street, where a colored woman and 20 other Negroes had barricaded
themselves and were shooting at aU whites who passed the place.
Other persons arrested included Kate Elder, 26 years old, who gave her home as
the State Street address. In all, four women and nine men were made prisoners at
the raid on the place which was found to be an arsenal for the Negro rioters. Two
revolvers, two rifles, an axe, several knives, and several hundred rounds of ammuni-
tion, including 38 and 48 [sic] calibre cartridges, were discovered piled up near the
window from which the Negroes had been shooting.
Patrolman John Hayes, of the South Clark Street Station, heard the shots fired
by the Negroes who were firing from the house and saw the spurts of fire from their
rifles and revolvers whenever whites ventured to pass the place. An unknown white
man, a victim of the Negroes' bullets, was found lying on the sidewalk. He was
rushed to St. Luke's Hospital where he died.
The facts of this case, as reported by the coroner's jury are as follows:
.... Harold Brignadello .... came to his death on the 29th day of July,
A.D. 1919, at St. Luke's Hospital from shock and hemorrhage due to a bullet wound
in the chest cavity.
[Note.— "a bullet wound," not "bullet-riddled."]
We find the deceased whUe standing at the southwest comer of State and Tay-
lor ... . was shot and wounded by a bullet fired from the revolver held in the hand
of one Emma Jackson who was standing at an open window on the second floor of
the premises at 1021 South State Street.
" Testimony before the coroner's jury.
28 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Testimony shows that just prior to the shooting, said premises had been stoned
by a mob of white men.
We, the jury, recommend that the said Emma Jackson, said Kate Elder, said
John Webb, said Ed. Robinson, and said Clarence Jones be held to the grand jury
upon a charge of murder until discharged by dueprocess of law.
[Note. — ^Two women and three men, not "four women and nine men," nor yet
"a colored woman and 20 other Negroes." They were indicted by the grand jury
but found not guUty.]
We believe from the evidence that the police have sufficient information as to the
identity of some of said white men to warrant arrest, and we recommend such action
be taken.
pSToTE. — ^No arrests of men in the white mob were made.]
The testimony further showed that there were 150 white men in the mob
grouped in front of 102 1, and four of the men were stoning the house at the
time Emma Jackson fired into their midst.
Only one gun was found and no stores of ammunition, instead of "a
formidable arsenal," or a "barricade" or "an arsenal for Negro rioters," or
" two revolvers, two rifles, an axe, several knives, and several hundred rounds
of ammunition, including 38 and 48 [sic] calibre cartridges .... piled up
near the window from which the Negroes had been shooting." The one gun
was hidden in a niche in the skylight.
Following are examples of rumors current during the riot and disseminated
by the press and by word of mouth, grouped on the basis of the emotions
which they aroused — ^vengeful animosity, fear, anger, and horror:
Daily News, July 30. Subheadline: "Alderman Jos. McDonough Tells
How He Was Shot at on South Side Visit. Says Enough Ammunition in
Section to Last for Years of Guerrilla Warfare":
[Note. — The reference in the headline to the large amount of ammunition
is repeated in the text, but not elaborated or explained.]
An alderman in an account of his adventures says the Mayor contemplates open-
ing up 3Sth and 47th streets in order that colored people might get to their work. He
thinks this would be most unwise for, he states, "They are armed and the white
people are not. We must defend ourselves if the city authorities won't protect us."
Continuing his story, he describes bombs going off, "I saw white men and women
running through the streets dragging children by the hands and carrying babies in
their arms. Frightened white men told me the police captains had just rushed
through the district crying, 'For God's sake, arm. They are coming, we cannot
hold them.'"
The point here is not whether the alderman was correctly quoted, but the
effect on the public of such statements attributed to him. There is no record
in any of the riot testimony in the coroner's office or in the state's attorney's
office of any bombs exploded during the riot, nor of police captains warning
white people to arm, nor of any fear on the part of whites of a Negro invasion.
In the Berger Odman case before the coroner's jury there is a statement that
WRECKED HOUSE OF A NEGRO FAMILY IN RIOT ZONE
THE CHICAGO RIOT 29
a police sergeant warned the Negroes of Ogden Park to arm and to shoot at
the feet of rioters if they attempted to invade the few blocks marked off for
Negroes by the police.
Herald-Examiner, July 28. SubheadHne: "Negroes Have Arms":
A man whose name is withheld reported to the Herald-Examiner that Negroes
had more than 2,000 Springfield rifles and an adequate supply of soft-nosed bullets.
R. R. Jackson, alderman from the second ward, brands the story as untrue.
This statement is not substantiated.
Herald-Examiner, July 29:
Several thousand men stoned the old Eighth Regunent Armory in the heart of
the riot zone, doors were burst in, and hundreds of guns with ammunition taken by
the mob. Pohce rushed to the scene firing into the mob and finally drove it from the
armory. According to reports more than 50 persons were shot or otherwise injured.
Refutation of this statement is found in the testimony of Police Captain
MuUen before the coroner's jury in the Eugene Williams case:
I received a rumor that the soldiers [referring to Negro soldiers of the Eighth
Regiment] had gone over to the armory for the sole purpose of breaking in and getting
rifles. I dispatched two patrol wagons fuU of men; after arriving there, we found
out they had been there and broke some windows, but they found out there were
no weapons in there.
Another type of fear-provoking rumor current in street crowds reported the
force and the aggressive plans of the opposing race. Some of these rumors, cur-
rent among Negro crowds, were to the effect that a white mob was gathering on
Wentworth Avenue ready to break into the "Black Belt"; that a white mob
was waiting to break through at Sixtieth and Ada streets; that a white mob
was ready to advance upon Twenty-seventh and Dearborn streets. The first
of these rumors had its effect upon the inception of the Angelus riot, and the
second so aroused the fears of Negroes that when a white mob led by young
white boys did step over the "dead-line" boundaries estabUshed by the poHce,
guns were immediately turned upon them, and one of the invaders was killed.
Of the third rumor, Police Lieutenant Burns said:
.... an old colored man came to me ... . and said that the colored people on
Dearborn Street in the 2800 block were moving out in fear of a white mob coming
from across the tracks from across Wentworth Avenue On the southwest
comer of Twenty-eighth and Dearborn I found a number of colored men standing in
front of a building there. They had pieces of brick and stone in their pockets and
were peering around the comer west on Twenty-eighth Street apparently in great fear.
Among the whites fear was not so prevalent. A fear-producing rumor
was revealed, however, in the examination of two deputy sheriffs who fired
on a Negro. The deputies had heard that Negroes were going to burn up
or blow up factories in the district which they were patrolling. When a dark
form was seen in an alley, panic seized both deputies, and they emptied their
revolvers at an innocent Negro who Uved in the adjoining house.
30 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Chief among the anger-provoking rumors were tales of injury done to
women of the race circulating the rumor. The similarity of the stories and
their persistence shows extraordinary creduUty on the part of the public. For
the most horrible of these rumors, telling of the brutal kilhng of a woman and
baby (sometimes the story is told of a Negro woman, sometimes of a white)
there was no foundation in fact. The story was circulated not only by the
newspapers of both races, but was current always in the crowds on the streets.
Here is the story as told in the white press:
Chicago Tribune, July 29:
There is an account of "two desperate revolver battles fought by the police with
colored men alleged to have killed two white women and a white child."
It is reported that policemen saw two Negroes knock down a woman and child
and kick them. The Negroes ran before the police could reach them.
Herald-Examiner, July 29:
Two white women, one of them with a baby in her arms, were attacked and
wounded by Negro mobs firing on street cars
A colored woman with a baby in her arms was reported at the Deering Police
Station, according to this item, to have been attacked by a mob of more than 100 white
men. When the mob finally fled before the approach of a squad of poUce both the
woman and child were lying in the street beaten to death, "it is said."
Daily News, July 29:
Another man is held at the Stock Yards station charged with the murder of a
white woman in West 47th Street and Wentworth
The Negroes, foiir in number, were arrested at East 39th and Cottage Grove
Avenue, this afternoon by the detective. They are beheved to be the ones who
seriously wounded Mrs. Margaret Kelley, white woman, at W. 47th and Wentworth.
She was shot ia the back and may die. The names of those under arrest were not
given out.
[Note. — "Murder" changed to "seriously injured" in the main story. Mrs.
Mary Kelly was shot in the arm according to the police report and not in the back.]
The men arrested for the shooting were Henry Harris and Scott Brown,
deputy sherifEs, and four others according to the records of the state's attorney.
Sheriff Peters says of the case, that Harris was charged with shooting someone,
but when the case came up the charge was dropped. Sheriff Peters was con-
vinced that Harris was innocent.
Daily News, July 29. Headline, given place of first importance in the
pink section: "Women Shot as Riots Grow." Columns 7 and 8 of first-page
white section are headed, "Attack White Women as Race Riots Grow. Death
Roster Is 30."
The item reads: "Race rioters began to attack white women this afternoon
according to report received at the Detective Bureau and the Stock Yards
Police Station." The article continues, that Swift & Company had not
received any such reports of attacks on their women employees. But farther
THE CHICAGO RIOT 31
on the item gives an account of a Swift & Company truck filled with girl
employees fired upon by Negroes at Forty-seventh Street and the Panhandle
railroad. The driver was reported killed and several of the girls injured.
The juxtaposition of "Death roster is 30" and "Attack white women"
gives a wrong impression. The "several girls injxured" at Forty-seventh
Street evidently refers to the case of Mrs. Mary Kelly. The records of the
state's attorney's office also show that Josephine Mansfield was supposed to
have been wounded by Harris, et ah, but the charge was dropped. She was
wounded in the shoulder, according to the police report.
Daily News, July 30 :
Alderman McDonough described a raid into the white district the night before
by a carload of colored men who passed Thirty-fifth Street and Wallace "shouting
and shooting." The gunmen shot down a woman and a little boy who stood close by.
[Note. — No record of such a case.]
Here is the "injury done to women " story as it appeared in the Negro press :
Chicago Defender, August 2 :
An unidentified young woman and three-months-old baby were found dead on
the street at the intersection of Forty-seventh and Wentworth. She had attempted
to board a car there when the mob seized her, beat her, slashed her body to ribbons,
and beat the baby 's brains out against a telegraph pole. Not satisfied with this one
rioter severed her breasts and a white youngster bore it aloft on a pole triumphantly
while the crowd hooted gleefully. The whole time this was happening several police-
men were in the crowd but did not make any attempt to make a rescue until too late.
Concerning all of these stories it may be stated that the coroner had no
cases of deaths of women and children brought before him. There was nothing
in the pohce reports or the files of the state's attorney or hospital reports or
the reports of Ohvet Baptist Church, which would give any foundation for
reports of the kilHng of a woman and child, white or Negro.
There were other rumors which had the same anger-producing effect as
reports of attacks on women. A notable case of this kind was the fatal clash
at the Angelus, an apartment house for white people at Thirty-fifth Street
and Wabash Avenue, on Monday, July 28 (see p. 6). The trouble here
grew from four o'clock in the afternoon until it culminated in the shooting
at 8:00 P.M. The excitement was, stimulated by the rapid spread of various
rumors. It was said that a white mob was gathering at Thirty-fifth Street
and Wentworth Avenue, only a few blocks from the colored mob which was
massed on Thirty-fifth Street from State Street to Wabash Avenue. The
rumor was that the white men are armed and prepared to "clean up the
'Black Belt.'" Another rumor had it that a Negro's sister had been killed
while coming home from the Stock Yards where she worked. Finally came
the rumor that a white person had fired a shot from the Angelus building,
wounding a colored boy. The rumor quickly went through the crowd swarming
around the building, but no one heard or saw the shooting. A search of the
32 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
building disclosed no firearms. Police Sergeant Middleton, Negro, described
the situation as "everybody tr)mig to teU you something and you couldn't
get anything." Another Negro policeman said it was "just a rumor that
went around through the crowd and everybody was saying, 'He shot from
that window'; I would go to that window and the crowd would say, 'That is
the window over there.' "
The anger-provoking power of rumor was seen in the ensuing clash. About
1,500 Negroes massed on one corner of Thirty-fifth Street and Wabash Avenue,
and about 100 policemen grouped themselves at the intersection of the two
streets. At the sight of a brick flying from the Negro mob the police fired a
volley into the midst of the mob. More shots came quickly from both sides.
Four Negroes were kiUed, and many were injured, among both the Negroes
and the police.
The Angelus rumor appeared as follows in a Negro newspaper, the Chicago
Defender, August 2: "White occupants of the Angelus apartments began
firing shots and throwing missiles from their windows. One man was shot
through the head but before his name could be secured he was spirited away."
In the case of Joseph Lovings, a Negro killed by an ItaUan mob, press
reports that were entirely false tended strongly to provoke the anger of Negro
mobs. For example:
Herald-Examiner, July 30: "He had been shot, stabbed and gasoline had
been thrown on his body which had been set afire. The poUce extinguished
the fire and took the body to the County Morgue."
Tribune, July 30: "This report says that he was stabbed and shot sixteen
times, then his body satiurated with gasoline and set afire."
The coroner's jury in commenting on this rumor said: "It gives us satis-
faction to say that this rumor, from our investigation, is false and unsub-
stantiated."
Among the horror rumors one finds such examples as the story of the white
man who stood at the entrance to Exchange Avenue and knocked down half
a dozen Negroes as they came by. This was current in the Stock Yards and
was told by one of the workers at the inquest on the body of William Dozier,
Negro, killed in the Yards. Another rimior had it that a Negro woman
nicknamed "Heavy" had partly slashed off the head of a white man. This
was picked up by a detective circulating among white people Hving in the
"Black Belt."
But chief among horror rumors was the Bubbly Creek rumor, which took
this form in the press:
Daily News, July 29. Subheadline: "Four Bodies in Bubbly Creek."
The article does not give details but says, "Bodies of four colored men were
taken today from Bubbly Creek in the Stock Yards district, it is reported."
This was one of the most persistent rumors of the riot, and inteUigent men
were found repeating it in half-credulous tones. A meat curer, talking in the
THE CHICAGO RIOT 33
superintendent's office of Swift & Company, said: "Well, I hear they did
drag two or three out of Bubbly Creek Dead bodies, that is the report
that came to the Yards, but personally I never got any positive evidence that
there was any people who was found there."
A juror on the coroner's panel said: "A man told a friend of mine — 'I can
furnish the name of that man — a man told him that he saw fifty-six bodies
taken out of Bubbly Creek. They made a statement they used a net and seine
to drag them out."
Mr. WiUiams, Negro attorney, said he was told that the bodies of 100
Negroes had been found in Bubbly Creek.
In its final report, the coroner's jury made this conclusive statement
regarding the Bubbly Creek nunor:
Bubbly Creek has been the favorite cemetery for the undiscovered dead, and our
inquiry has been partly directed to that stream. In our inquiry we have been assisted
by the Stock Yards officials and workers, by adjacent property owners and residents,
by private detective bureaus, the Police Department, Department of Health, State's
Attorney's office, by observing akid intelligent colored citizens, apd by other agencies,
and we are firmly of the opinion that these reports, so widely circulated, are erroneous,
misleading, and without foundation in fact, the race riot victims numbering thirty-
eight, and no more, nor are there any colored citizens reported to us as missing.
Rumor, fermenting in mobs, prepares the mob mind for the direct suggestion
impelling otherwise law-abiding citizens to atrocities. Another more insidious
and potentially more dangerous result is the slow accumulation of f eeUng which
builds between the white and Negro the strongest barrier of race prejudice.
Police. — ^There has been much criticism of the maimer in which the riot
was handled by the authorities, but it may be pointed out that the riot was
not quelled until at least four groups of peace guardians had taken part in
handhng it. The two most important groups were the police and the mOitia;
the others were composed of deputy sheriffs and Negro ex-soldiers.
Testimony before the coroner's jury and in hearings before this Commission
throws considerable light on the actions of the Pohce Department as a whole
during the riot, its methods in meeting the unusual situation, and on the
conduct of individual poHcemen. First-hand information and opinion was
obtained from Chief of Pohce Garrity and State's Attorney Hoyne.
The poUce had two severe handicaps at the outset of the rioting. The first,
as declared by Chief Garrity, was lack of sufficient nxmibers adequately to
cope with the situation. The coroner's jury found that "the police force
should be enlarged. It is too small to cope with the needs of Chicago." The
grand jury added: "The pohce force is also inadequate in numbers, and
at least one thousand (1,000) officers should be added to the existing force."
This number approxunates the need urged by Chief Garrity, who, when
asked before the Commission as to the sufficiency of his force, answered:
"No. I haven't sufficient force. I haven't got a sufficient force now to
34 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
properly police the city of Chicago by one-third." MiHtia officers and other
poUce officials held the same general opinion.
The second handicap, distrust of white policemen by all Negroes, while
impUed and not admitted by Chief Garrity, was frankly explained by State's
Attorney Hoyne. He said before the Commission: "There is no doubt that a
great many police officers were grossly unfair in making arrests. They shut
their eyes to offenses committed by white men while they were very vigorous
in getting all the colored men they could get."
Leaders among the Negroes clearly indicate that discrimination in arrest
was a principal cause of widespread and long-standing distrust. Whether
justified or not, this feehng was actual and bitter. This distrust had grown
seriously during the six months preceding the riot because no arrests were
made in bombing cases. State's Attorney Hoyne said before the commission:
"I don't know of a single case where the police have apprehended any
man who has blown up a house."
Charles S. Duke, a well-educated and fair-minded Negro, gave his reaction
to the bombings when he said that he did not "believe a Negro would have
been allowed to go unpunished five minutes." Mrs. Clarke, Negro, said her
house was bombed three times, once while a plain-clothes poUceman was inside
waiting for bombers, but no arrests were made. One suspect was put under
surveillance but was not held.
The trial of the three Negro policemen before the Merit Committee of
the Police Department because they refused to use the "Jim Crow" sleeping-
quarters in a police station doubtless added to race feehng, particularly in
view of the publicity it received in the "Black Belt."
Negro distrust of the pohce increased among the Negroes during the
period of the riot. With each clash a new cause for suspicion seemed to
spring up. The most striking instance occurred on the first afternoon when
Policeman Callahan refused to arrest the white man whom the Negro crowd
accused of causing the drowning of Williams, the Negro boy. This refusal
has been called the beginning of the'riot because it led to mob violence of grave
consequences. However that may have been, the fact remains that this
refusal was heralded broadcast by the Negroes as the kind of action they
might expect from the police.
Typical of the minor tales which laid the foundation for the Negroes'
bitterness toward this white policeman are the following:
1. Kin Lumpkin, Negro, was beaten by a mob on the "L" platform at
Forty-seventh Street, as he was going home from work. The poUceman
arrested Lumpkin and had him booked for rioting. No other arrests were
made. Lumpkin was held from July 28 to August i.
2. Two pohcemen, one of them Officer McCarty of the Twenty-sixth
Precinct, witnessed the beating of Wellington Dunmore, Negro, of 4120
South Campbell Avenue, but, according to the victim, refused to assist him.
NEGROES BEING ESCORTED BY POLICE TO SAFETY ZONE FROM THE
NEIGHBORHOOD OF FORTY^EIGHTH STREET AND
WENTWORTH AVEiNfUE
SEARCHING NEGROES FOR ARMS IN POLICE STATION
THE CHICAGO RIOT 35
3. John Slovall and brother, Negroes, were beaten and robbed by whites
in sight of a white poUceman. No arrests were made. The officer did not
even call for aid.
4. While looking for his mother at Thirty-first and State streets on Tuesday,
July 29, Wm. F. Thornton, Negro, 3207 South Park Avenue, asked a policeman
to take him home. The officer took him to the police station and locked him
up. Another Negro applied for protection, but the police searched him,
clubbed him, and when he ran, the sergeant told another poUceman to shoot
him. The poUceman obeyed and the man f eU under the " L " station. He was
picked up by the same patrol wagon that took Thornton to the Cottage
Grove PoUce Station. The officer, Bundy, arrested Thornton.
A report on 229 Negroes and whites accused of various criminal activities
disclosed the fact that 154 were Negroes and seventy-five were whites. The
state's attorney reported eighty-one indictments against Negroes and forty-
seven against whites after all riot cases were cleared up. These figures show
that twice as many Negroes appeared as defendants and twice as many were
indicted as whites.
At first glance these figures indicate greater riot activity on the part of
Negroes, and therefore one would expect to find twice as many whites injured
as Negroes. But out of a total of 520 injured persons whose race was definitely
reported, 342 were Negroes and 178 whites. The fact that twice as many
Negroes appeared as defendants and twice as many were injured as whites sug-
gests the conclusion that whites were not apprehended as readily as Negroes.
Herman M. Adler, state criminologist of IlUnois, testif3dng before the
Commission, expressed the belief that the poUce showed much more readiness
to arrest Negroes than whites because the officers thought they were "taking
fewer chances if they 'soaked' a colored man."
Negro distrust of poUce and courts seems to have been confirmed by
the action of the state's attorney's office in bringing only Negro riot cases
before the grand jury. This body, however, took a stand for fair play and
justice for both sides, and though its action may have been novel, it was efiect-
ive. In its final report, the grand jury said:
This jury has no apology to offer for its attitude with reference to requesting the
state 's attorney to supply it with information of crimes perpetrated by whites against
blacks before considering further evidence against blacks. This attitude gave rise
to the reports in the press that this grand jury "had gone on a strike." As a matter
of fact, its position was merely a suspension of hearing further cases of crimes com-
mitted by blacks against whites until the state's attorney submitted evidence con-
cerning the various crimes committed by whites against blacks. The reason for this
attitude arose from a sense of justice on the part of this jury. It is the opinion of
this jury that the colored people suffered more at the hands of the white hoodlums
than the white people suffered at the hands of the black hoodlums. Notwithstandiug
this fact, the cases presented to this jury against the blacks far outnumber those
against the whites.
36 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
State's Attorney Hoyne justified this action by saying that the Police
Department brought in Negroes only, and until they arrested whites, he was
Umited to proceedings against Negroes.
The coroner's jury on November 3, 1919, reported as follows:
Our attention was called strikingly to the fact that at the time of race rioting,
the arrests made for rioting by the police of colored rioters were far in excess of the
arrests made of white rioters. The failure of the pohce to arrest unpartially, at the
time of rioting, whether from insufficient effort or otherwise, was a mistake and had
a tendency to further uicite and aggravate the colored population.
This seeming discrimination in arrests naturally deepened Negro distrust
and lack of confidence in the police. Testimony was taken by the Commission
on the plans and action of the Pohce Department during the riot period,
since the Commission felt that the distribution of forces and the methods
used by the department to meet such an emergency were matters of first
importance.
Chief of Pohce Garrity testified that there were 3,500 poUcemen m the
department at the tune of the riot, and that he had " practically every poUceman
in the city of Chicago down there," indicating Thurty-fifth Street and Rhodes
Avenue as "practically in the heart of the district where the most trouble was."
The widest distribution from that center, he said, was over an area bounded
by Lake Michigan, Ashland Avenue, Van Buren Street, and Sixty-ninth Street.
The heaviest concentration of pohce, however, was in the "Black Belt."
The Stanton Avenue Pohce Station at Thirty-fifth Street and Rhodes Avenue
is at about the center of the most congested Negro residential area. Asked
how many pohcemen were assigned to that vicinity (the area from Twenty-
second to Thirty-ninth streets), Chief Garrity said, "We had in the neighbor-
hood of 2,800 men in that territory." Later the chief said only " the necessary
sergeants and one or two men at each station were held back for emergency
calls" in all other parts of the city. This means that four-fiifths of the total
pohce force was concentrated there.
Although there is no direct testimony as to the existence of flying squadrons
of pohce, yet such bodies appear to have been operating. Probably the most
important of these was the patrol under PoUce Captain Mullen, who said
that his territory extended from Twenty-second to Thirty-ninth streets and
from the lake to the Rock Island tracks, or roughly the "Black Belt." Chief
Deputy Alcock' sent eighty-eight pohcemen into this district on Sunday
afternoon, twenty-five more at midnight, and fifty more on Monday morning.
In describing the disposition of pohce details. Chief Garrity said: "They
were routed by him [Alcock] according to conditions existing in different dis-
tricts. Some districts might have a hundred men in the block and in the
next block there might be only ten, according to what conditions were."
' Chief of Police Garrity was out of the city at the time the riot began on Sunday, but
returned on Monday.
THE CHICAGO RIOT 37
Forces were moved from one point of disturbance to another by means of
patrol wagons on request of local commanders.
The 2,800 policemen in the "Black Belt" were under the command of
Chief Deputy Alcock with headquarters in the Stanton Avenue Station. He
"used his discretion in the number of men assigned to the different points
and the handling of them in the different territories."
Riot orders were given by Chief Garrity as follows: "Wherever possible
suppress the riot and restore peace"; "the second day I ordered a dead line
on Wentworth Avenue and Twenty-second Street to, I think. Sixty-third
Street"; "instructions were that 'you will allow no colored people to go across
to the west and no white people to go across to the east.' " Cabarets, saloons,
and public places were ordered closed, and all large gatherings of either whites
or Negroes were prohibited from Van Buren to Sixty-ninth streets and from
Ashland Avenue to the lake. The chief added, "Closing clubrooms and
everything in the district west of Wentworth Avenue as well as east of it."
A general poUcy was adopted of search and seizure of persons suspected of
carrying weapons on the street, and of houses from which firing came. Captain
Mullen testified before the coroner's jury at the Eugene Williams inquest
that on July 29 Chief Deputy Alcock hned up the poHcemen in front of the
Stanton Avenue Station and gave them their orders. They were told to
"preserve the peace; that was all."
PoUce records of clashes were incomplete and often inaccurate. This
was in part due, and naturally so, to the stress of the moment. In many
cases the station lists of injured were far from complete and in few instances
were the names of witnesses given. Even the dates and hours of clashes were
loosely recorded. Persons arrested were frequently not booked at all, while
on the other hand it was not uncommon to find innocent persons charged
with serious offenses. Henry Scholz, policeman of the Twenty-sixth Precinct,
threw much light on police records while being examined in connection with
certain automobile arrests:
They were all discharged, booked for "disorderly," because we couldn't find
the guns in the mix-up. It was the first or second day down there and they were
bringing them in right and left, and I suppose in the mLx-up they mislaid the guns,
or put them away somewhere, or booked them to someone else. We held them
about a week trying to find the guns and trying to find the officers that got the guns.
It is important to know how the distribution and routing of police affected
the general riot situation. As already shown fomr-fiiths of the poUce forces
were concentrated in the "Black Belt." This undoubtedly both weakened
poUce forces elsewhere and also prevented or delayed reinforcements in outside
districts. Only 34 per cent of the total number of reported injuries occurred
in the area of concentration. Negro hatred of the poUce is worth mentioning
again here, especially since many of the deaths and injuries occurred during
clashes between white policemen and Negro mobs.
38 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
That other districts where danger existed were poorly protected is shown
by the fact that fatal clashes occurred there without interruption by the
poUce. The most conspicuous case is noted in the "Loop" atrocities on July
29, where two Negroes, Hardwick and Williams, were kiUed, several were
injured and robbed, and business property of whites was damaged. A police
sergeant said that only three officers and one sergeant were in the district
on the night of July 28-29. In t^ie Stock Yards district, where 41 per cent
of the injuries and several deaths occurred, there is no record of an attempt by
the poHce to increase the riot forces. In this district gang raids by whites
were practically beyond control. On July 28 B. F. Hardy, a Negro, was
killed at Forty-sixth Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. Sergeant Clancy
later testified that there were no poHcemen in this district until after the
trouble. The foreman of the grand jury investigated the activities of the
Deering Street Station under PoHce Captain Gallery. He says: "They
didn't have a suflScient number of poUcemen to handle the situation. If I
remember correctly, he had eight patrolmen covering a district of any number
of square miles."
In spite of the concentration of poUce in the "Black Belt" some parts of
that area seem at times not to have been properly guarded. Several serious
clashes occurred there after the police arrived in force. Theodore Copling,
Negro, was shot to death at Thirtieth and State streets in the heart of the
"Black Belt" on July 30. This had been a riotous corner for three days,
yet no pohcemen were at hand. The nearest was a detective sergeant on
Twenty-ninth Street between Federal and State streets. Samuel Banks,
Negro, was shot and killed near the corner of Twenty-seventh and Dearborn
streets on July 30 at 11 : 00 p.m., yet Lieutenant Burns, in charge of this district,
testified at the inquest that twelve to fourteen ofl&cers were at Twenty-seventh
and Dearborn streets immediately before the shooting.
It was undoubtedly the relatively large nimiber of clashes which the
poHce were unable to prevent that led the coroner's jury to recommend that
" (6) there should be organization of the force for riot work for the purpose
of controlling rioting in its incipient stages."
The conduct of individual policemen received much adverse criticism from
the Negroes. This was to be expected in the circumstances, but disregarding
the general prejudice of which white oflScers were accused, certain cases of
discrimination, abuse, brutaUty, indifierence, and neglect on the part of
individuals are deserving of examination.
Abusive and brutal treatment was complained of by Horace Jennings,
3422 South Aberdeen Street. He reported to the state's attorney's office that
Policeman G — , of the Grand Crossing Station, approached him, as he lay
wounded by a mob attack, with the words, "Where's your gun, you black
of a ? You damn niggers are raising hell"; that the officer hit him
on the head, and he did not regain consciousness until some time later in the
THE CHICAGO RIOT 39
B urnside Hospital ; and he further charged that Gallagher took a purse contain-
ing $13 when he searched him.
Three Negroes were rescued by the police from a white mob of twenty-five
or thirty men. Scott, one of the Negroes, was taken from the street car on which
all three were riding, by the command of a policeman to " come out of there,
you big rusty brute, you. I ought to shoot you," and was given a blow on
the head. According to a witness he was again struck by the policeman
as he was pushed into the patrol wagon. He was subjected to rough treatment
at the jail and was kept incommxmicado from July 28 to August 4, not being
permitted to notify his wife or an attorney. None of the twenty-five or
thirty white rioters was arrested. There was some evidence of fear on the
part of the poUce to arrest rioting whites.
Fear by poUcemen of Negroes is also disclosed. George Crumm, white,
124 East Forty-sixth Street, informed the state's attorney's ofiB.ce that he
was beaten by a Negro mob, got poUce assistance, and pointed out the rioters,
but the police "didn't seem to want to interfere any."
On several occasions pohcemen left the scene of riots on questionable
excuses while the rioting was in progress. Of the three mounted policemen
at Thirty-fifth Street and Wabash Avenue who rushed to the spot where a
mob was attacking Otterson, two accompanied the automobile of Otterson
to the hospital. The mob was not quelled or dispersed. When the house of
WilUam O'Deneal, Negro, 4742 Wells Street, was attacked, the police took
O'Deneal to the station and left the mob to sack and burn his house. At the
kilUng of WilHam Dozier, Negro, all three police officers who responded to
notice of an attack by a white mob of 300 or more, left in the same patrol
wagon. The names of witnesses were not taken. It was the custom for all
to accompany the wagon, according to Officer McDonough.
PoUtical "pull" exercised with the police on behalf of rioters has been
indicated. It was noted that one of "Ragen's Colts" said an officer of the
Stock Yards Station "tipped them off" to stay away from their club because
Attorney General Brundage's office was out investigating them.
IndifiEerence both to extreme lawlessness during the riot and to the procedure
of the inquest marked the examination of Captain of Police MuUen before the
coroner's jury. He was in command of twelve mounted men and between
sixty-three and 100 men on foot at Thirty-fifth Street and Wabash Avenue
when a clash between the poUce and a Negro mob occurred. WhUe it appears
to be the fact that he left just before the heavy firing to telephone from a saloon
one block away, yet the building he was in was struck by bullets. The follow-
ing excerpt from the inquest speaks for itself:
Q.: What time did the shooting take place at the building known as the
Angelus Building ? What time did that occur ? Was there any shooting at that
building ?
Mullen: Not that I heard.
40 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Q.: Had there been any shooting done there that evening around .... before
you left ?
Mullen: Not to my knowledge.
Q.: When was the shooting done, and where were you ?
Mullen: What do you mean shooting ?
Three men were killed and many injured at Thirty-fifth Street and Wabash
Avenue at this time. Firing broke out near-by almost, immediately.
Q.: There were some shots fired at Thirty-fifth and State, Captain, at eight that
night, right after the volley was fired, we have absolute evidence.
Mullen: Wdl, you may have, but I have not.
Yet Captain MuUen was in command of the police who killed two more
men and inflicted other woimds when the Negroes ran before the police
advance.
Militia. — The rapid growth of the riot both in violence and territorially
created such alarm among the authorities and the public that the question of
its control became a matter of paramount concern to the commxmity. Before
twenty-four hours had elapsed requests were made to the local authorities
for the militia. The representations were based on insufficiency of police
forces and were strongly urged before the chief of police.
Chief Garrity steadily refused to ask for troops, in spite of his repeated
statement that the police force was insufficient. He gave as his reason the
belief that inexperienced militiamen would add to the deaths and disorders.
Mayor Thompson supported the chief's refusal until outside pressure compelled
him to ask the governor for aid. On the other band the chief deputy of police
was quoted by State's Attorney Hoyne as having said at the outbreak of the
riot that the police would not be able to handle the situation, and that troops
were needed. In this he was supported by Mr. Hoyne. From observation
of conditions on the first three days of the riot, the chief of staff of the troops,
Colonel Ronayne, concluded that the police were insufficient in numbers,
that no improvement was apparent in the general situation, and that therefore
the troops were necessary. He saw no reason, however, for putting the city
under martial law. Other military men were of the same opinion.
During all of this time Governor Lowden kept in close touch with the
situation from his quarters at the Blackstone Hotel. When the riot appeared
to be subsiding he started to keep an appointment out of town but, on hearing
that there was a renewal of violence, returned to the city on a special train.
When the request was made for the active co-operation of the troops he acted
with promptness.
The troops themselves were clearly of high caliber. For the most part
they were in home service during the war and were older men than are ordina-
rily found in militia organizations. They "usually came from the higher
type of business men, men of affairs, men that knew how to think," as one of
their commanding officers described them. They were all American-born.
NEGROES UNDER PROTI^XTlOy OF POLICE AND MILITIA BUYING PRO
VISIONS BROUGHT INTO THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD IN WAGONS
THE MILITIA AND NEGROES ON FRIENDLY TERMS
THE CHICAGO RIOT 41
The militia discipline was of the best. Not a single case of breach of
discipUne was reported to the regimental commanders. No guardhouse
was necessary during the riot, a remarkable commentary on troop conduct.
The miUtia had been given special drills in the suppression of riots and
insurrections for a year and a half previous to this occasion, and were, in the
estimation of their commanding ofHcer, "probably better prepared for riot
drill than any troops ever put on duty in the state."
The activities of the militia did not begin as early as many citizens wished.
Though troops began to mobilize in the armories on Monday night, July 28,
they were not called to actual duty on the streets until 10:30 p.m., Wednesday,
July 30. When called to active duty they were distributed in the areas of
conflict. Between 5,000 and 6,000 troops were called out. This number was
made up entirely of white troops from the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Infantry,
IlUnois National Guard, and from the First, Second, Third, and Fourth
Reserve MiUtia regiments of the militia. Colored troops who had composed
the Eighth Regiment were not reorganized at that time, and therefore none
participated.
Distribution of troops was determined not by the mihtia command but
by the poUce, because the city was not under martial law, the civil authority
being merely insufficient, not broken. The Third Infantry covered the
territory from Thirty-first to Thirty-eighth streets and from State to Halsted
streets; Eleventh Infantry from Thirty-ninth to Forty-seventh streets, and
from State to Halsted streets; Tenth Infantry from Forty-eighth to Fifty-fifth
streets (later extended to Sixty-third Street by details from the First Infantry),
and from Cottage Grove to Stewart avenues. The First, Fourth, and Ninth
Infantry were held in reserve. Detachments responded to calls from the chief
of police in districts outside these areas. Headquarters for the commanding
general and his chief of stafE were in the Congress Hotel at the northern bound-
ary of the riot zone.
The orders under which the mihtia operated did not have the authority
of martial law. The purpose of the orders was to effect a thorough co-operation
with the poUce only, and not to take over any duties other than the preservation
of law and order. Except in this respect, civihan routine remained undisturbed.
The method of co-operation put the commanding officer of a regiment in
absolute control, within the limits above described, in his district. The
police reduced their number to normal requirements by removing their reserves
as soon as the miUtia moved in. The patrolmen then went about on ordinary
duties in the districts. Persons arrested by the miUtia were turned over to
the poUce.
ResponsibiUty for the preservation of law and order rested on the regi-
mental commanders. Careful instructions were given troops for preventing
violence: they were to act as soldiers in a gentlemanly manner; they were fur-
nished with arms to enable them to perform their duties; they were to use the
42 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
arms only when necessary; they were to use bayonet and butt in preference
to firing, but if the situation demanded shooting, they were not to hesitate
to dehver an efiective fire. Above all, the formation of mobs was to be prevented .
The manner in which the mihtia was received by various elements in the
communities where stationed is illuminating. Police officers were glad that
the troops came to reUeve them. Two pohcemen on duty with a patrol
exclaimed, when they heard the mihtia had come in force, "Thank. God!
We can't stand up under this much longer!" The poUce at Cottage Grove
Avenue said, "We are tickled to death to see you fellows come in; you have
never looked so good to us before! " A regimental commander said his organi-
zation was "welcomed into the zone, of course, by everybody, and I'd say
especially by the colored people." A similar report came from another
regimental commander.
But there was some show of hostihty to the troops. Hoodliuns fired on
some detachments when they first came in, and Colonel Bolte reported a
hatred for the troops by " the Hamburg Athletic Club, the Ragen's, and the
Emeralds, and a whole bunch of them over there who didn't Uke to be con-
trolled!" Volunteer exrservice men with no legal status, but who aided the
poUce at the time, and deputy sherifis with overseas training ridiculed the
militia with such taunts as, "Tin soldiers!" The effect of this attitude on
the populace necessitated the arrest of some disturbers and the removal of
unauthorized persons from the streets.
It is a singular fact that mihtia activities were principally against gangs
of hoodlums, and the majority of these gangs were composed of white youths.
Said one commander, " Rowdies of the white population tried to get through
the Unes and had to be arrested." "At one time a heavy truck or two loaded
with white gangsters attempted to break through the militia but was checked."
Plenty of trouble "with the Ragen's and other similar organizations" was
reported by yet another commander.
The mihtia unquestionably prevented mob formations, raids, and "snip-
ing." They checked marauders still in search of prey. In many cases they
prevented the initial moves of lawlessness by taking stations at critical points
long before raiders arrived.
There was a marked contrast between the mihtia and the police. The
troops were under definite orders; commanders had absolute control of their
forces and knew at all times where and how many effectives were available.
Precision and promptness of movement was the rule. Reserves were always
at hand. Discipline was always good. Only one person, a white man, was
killed by the troops. Whatever other restraining causes contributed, it is
certain that the riot was not revived after the troops were posted.
Most of the troops were withdrawn on August 8.
Volunteers. — Many Negro ex-service men, formerly members of the old
Eighth Regiment (Negro) of the lUinois National Guard, donned theu: uni-
THE CHICAGO RIOT 43
forms, armed, and offered their services to the police and militia. The militia
on duty found that these Negro volunteers had no authority or military status
and consequently ordered them to disband, which they did.
Before the troops were called out, however, a determined effort was made
by one Britton, white police reserve, to organize ex-soldiers for volunteer
service. He said as many as thirty-five joined him. They were denied permits
to carry weapons but are reported to have done so. It was these men who
used an automobile, driven with the mufflers open, to clear the streets.
Evidence of the use of Uquor was noticed among these men during their
active period. Some were involved in the kiUing of Samuel Banks, Negro;
some in the robbery of a restaurant and in misdeeds of a minor character.
Following the imphcation of individuals among them in these crimes, numbers
of the ex-soldiers were arrested by the poUce, but were released by order of
Chief Garrity on accoimt of the assistance many of them had rendered the
department and because of representations of business men who felt that
the arrests were unjust.
Deputy sheriffs. — In addition to police, miUtiamen, and volunteers, another
group composed of specially recruited deputy sheriffs, appeared in the riot
zone as preservers of the peace. They were sworn in by Sheriff Peters, of Cook
County, after citizens had appealed to him, he said, to quell the riot. In regard
to their formation, numbers, orders, and duties, the sheriff had this to say:
I advertised for ex-service men to serve as deputy sheriffs. A thousand or more
applied. They were all men who had returned from the war and were out of work.
I hired 500 of them, kept them in the army uniforms, and instructed them to shoot
to kill any disturbers or rioters. The presence of these men and the show of authority
thereby made was effective, and the riot was queUed.
Fifteen thousand dollars was spent on this force.
It appears that these deputies came on the scene toward the end of the
riot week and at once fell into disfavor with the militia, whom they ridiculed
as "tin soldiers" in much the same manner as did the volunteers. Two regi-
mental commanders of mihtia said the special deputies "did not behave in a
very pleasant manner" and "in the majority of instances were no good."
The sheriff was notified to caU them in and they soon disappeared. There is
no record of organized methods of procedure or of their activities.
Restoration of order. — ^Long before actual hostilities ceased, and even
before the arrival of the militia, various agencies, in addition to the pohce,
were at work trying to hold lawlessness in check and restore order. Efforts
of citizens of both races helped greatly in bringing about peace. As long as
the rioting was in progress thousands of Negroes were cut off from their employ-
ment. The Stock Yards workers especially were affected, since Negroes
hving east of Wentworth Avenue would have been forced to go to work on
foot through the district in which the worst rioting occurred. The hostiUties
also cut off the food supply in the main riot areas. The dealers in the "Black
44 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Belt," principally Jewish merchants, became alarmed lest temporary lack
of funds due to the separation from work and wages should lead Negroes to
loot their stores.
On August I, the various packing companies made the unpaid wages of
Negro employees available for them by establishing pay stations at the Chicago
Urban League at 3032 Wabash Avenue, the Wabash Avenue Young Men's
Christian Association at 3763 Wabash Avenue, the South Side Community
Service House at 3201 South Wabash Avenue, and the Binga State Bank,
Thirty-eighth and State streets. Approximately 6,000 employees were paid
in this way. Banks within the district made smaU temporary loans to stranded
persons, sometimes without security. The cashier of the Franklin State
Bank at Thirty-fifth Street and Michigan Avenue said that he had made
loans of more than $200 to Negroes in sums of $2 and $3 on their simple promise
to pay, and that every dollar had been repaid.
All the local newspapers in their editorial columns took a vigorous stand
against disorder, urged the people to be calm and avoid crowds, and were
insistent that those responsible for rioting should be brought to justice. The
Tribune, for example, pubhshed editorials under the folloTving captions:
" Regain Order and Keep It," " Sane Men and Rioters, " "This Is No Holiday,"
"The Facts of the Riot," and "Penalties for Rioters." All of these articles
were calm appeals for tolerance, sanity, and dispassionate inquiry for the
facts. The Evening American, in an editorial entitled "This Is Chicago's
Crisis; Keep a Cool Head," said:
Chicago is facing its crisis today.
In one great section of the city law and order for the time being seem to have been
flung to the four winds. White men and colored men are shooting one another down
in the streets for no earthly cause except that the color of their faces differs.
These mobs are not representative of whites or blacks. They are the hoodlums
of both races. But the law abiding whites and blacks are innocent victims.
Hotheads and smoking gun barrels have almost wrested the rule from the keepers
of the peace.
It is worse than a calamity, this race rioting. It is a deadly, ghastly scourge, a
dire contagion that is sweeping through a community for no reason except that mob
violence is contagious.
It is up to the cool-headed men of Chicago to settle the great difficulty. It is up
to the serious-minded business men of the city to get together and find a solution to a
problem which has become so serious.
To meet violence with violence is but making matters worse. Gun toting at a
time like this only adds fuel to the fire already raging.
Reason is the solution. It is mightier than the six-gun. How it is to be exerted
is for the level-headed citizenry to decide, and decade at once.
Hardly an hour passes that more names are not added to the already long list of
slain in the South Side rioting.
There is no time to be lost. Other matters must be put aside for the moment
and a solution reached for Chicago's greatest problem.
NEGRO STOCK YARDS WORKERS CUT OFF FROM \\ORK RECEIVING WAGES
Photograph taken at temporao' pa\' station estabHshed at tlic Y.M.C'.A. }>y packing companies
BUYING ICE FROM FREIGHT CAR SWITCHED INTO NEGRO RESIDENCE AREA
THE CHICAGO RIOT 45
Labor unions also took a hand in the efforts toward peace. Unionists of
both races were exhorted to co-operate in bringing about harmonious relations,
and meetings for this purpose were planned by trade-union leaders, as
described in the section of this report dealing with the Negro in industry.
Probably the most effective effort of union labor was the following article
in the New Majority, the organ of the Chicago Federation of Labor, promi-
nently displayed:
For White Union Men to Read
Let any white union worker who has ever been on strike where gunmen or machine
gun have been brought in and turned on him and his fellows search his memory and
recall how he felt. In this critical moment let every union man remember the tactics
of the boss in a strike when he tries by shooting to terrorize striking workers into
violence to protect themselves.
Well, that is how the Negroes feel. They are panic-stricken over the prospect of
being killed.
A heavy responsibility rests on the white portion of the community to stop
assault on Negroes by white men. Violence against them is not the way to solve the
vexed race problem.
This responsibility rests particularly heavy upon the white men and women of
organized labor, not because they had anything to do with starting the present
trouble, but because of their advantageous position to help end it. Right now it is
going to be decided whether the colored workers are to continue to come into the
labor movement or whether they are going to feel that they have been abandoned by
it and lose confidence in it.
It is a critical time for Chicago.
It is a critical time for organized labor.
All the influence of the unions shoxild be exerted on the community to protect
colored feUow-workers from the unreasoning frenzy of race prejudice. Indications
of the past have been that organized labor has gone further in eliminating race hatred
than any other class. It is up against the acid test now to show whether this is so.
Various social agencies took steps to help in the emergency and restore
order. The American Red Cross has a branch at Thirty-fifth Street and
Michigan Avenue. As soon as the rioting became serious a special rehef
headquarters was estabUshed here, and food was distributed to needy famihes
cut off from work. The Urban League was used as a headquarters for the
distribution of food.
The Urban League had for several years, through its employment bureau,
handled a large proportion of the city's Negro labor supply and was conversant
with difficulties likely to result from the rioting. It made food surveys of
the entire Negro area, printed and distributed thousands of circulars and
dodgers urging Negroes to stay off the streets, refrain from dangerous discus-
sions of the riot, and co-operate with the poUce in every way to maintain order.
The League sent telegrams to the governor and mayor suggesting plans for
46 . THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
curbing disorder, organized committees of citizens to aid the authorities in re-
storing order, and served as a bureau of information and medium of commu-
nication between the white and Negro groups during the worst hostilities.
The Young Men's Christian Association was similarly active within the
area of its efforts. ReUgious bodies, ministers' associations, and individual
ministers exerted their influence over their respective groups by advis-
ing the citizens to "keep cool," "hold their heads," and generally to let
the authorities settle the riot. Negro business men and one Negro alder-
man sent wagons through the streets bearing large signs which advised
Negroes not to congregate on streets, engage in arguments, or partici-
pate in any way in the disorders. The signs further stated that people would
be advised when it would be safe to return to work. Other persons went about
speaking on street corners urging co-operation with the police and militia.
Appeals by of&cials and leading citizens were published in the white and Negro
papers, carrying similar advice. During the riot a committee of citizens
representing fojrty-eight social, civic, commercial, and professional organiza-
tions met at the Union League Club and petitioned the governor to take
steps to quiet the existing disorder and appoint a commission to study the
situation with a view to preventing a repetition of it. As a result of this appeal
followed by similar urgings by many committees, the present Chicago Commis-
sion on Race Relations was appointed and began its work.
Aftermath of the riot. — ^Af ter the restoration of order community activities
were superficially the same as before the riot, but under the svu^ace there
remained a deepened bitterness of race feeling which spread far beyond the
time and territorial limits of the riot itself.
All the deep-seated causes of friction which had developed so largely
from the failure to work out an adjustment of the increased Negro population
due to the migration were and are still present, undiminished in influence.
Consciousness of racial difiference and more or less unconscious fear and distrust
were increased and spread by the riot. Among the whites this was evidenced
by the general belief that Negroes were gathering stores of arms and ammuni-
tion. Among the Negroes a growing race soUdarity has been marked. There is
a greater lack of confidence in the white man's law and machinery of protection.
Continued bombings of Negro houses in mixed areas and failure to apprehend
the culprits no doubt strengthen this attitude.
Reports of various Negro gatherings held soon after the riot show this
to be the case. Many Negroes frankly urged their brothers that they must
arm themselves and figfet if attacked. At one meeting a Negro is reported
to have said:
The recent race riots have done at least one thing for the colored race. In the
past we Negroes have failed to appreciate what solidarity means. We have, on the
contrary, been much divided. Since the riot we are getting together and devising
ways and means of protecting our interests. The recent race riots have convinced
THE CHICAGO RIOT 47
us that we must take steps to protect ourselves. Never again will we be found unpre-
pared. It is the duty of every man here to provide himself with guns and ammunition.
I, myself, have at least one gun and at least enough ammunition to make it useful.
The riot furnished the gang and hoodlum element a chance to indulge in
lawlessness. Fear of death and injury may help to hold that element in check.
But it cannot be argued that fear of punishment is much of a factor, for very
few convictions of rioters were secured.
Quick justice would have been a salutary means of curbing tendencies to
riot, according to both the coroner's jury and the grand jury. The coroner's
jury said: "One remedy for race rioting is a speedy conviction and punishment
of those guilty, regardless of race or color, giving all concerned a fair and
impartial hearing." Its eighth recommendation reads: "Above all, a strict
enforcement of the law by public officials, fair and impartial, will do more
than any other agency in restoring the good name of Chicago, and prevent
rioting from any cause from again disturbing the peace of our city."
The August, 1919, grand jury said: "This jury feels that in order to allay
further race prejudice and to prevent the re-enactment of shameful crimes
committed during the recent riots, efficient, prompt, and fearless justice on
the part of the judiciary be meted out to the guilty ones, whether they be white
or black."
In a fair consideration of whether swift and impartial justice was meted
out, it must be noted that it was extremely hard to secure evidence sufficient
for successful prosecution. Police attention upon arriving at the scene of a
clash was directed more to removing the injured than apprehending the
guilty. Where attempts were made to search out the offenders, it was next
to impossible to get results on account of the keen race consciousness which
made Negroes disclaim knowledge of Negro culprits and white people deny
seeing specific white men act aggressively. Many of the crowds were neighbor-
hood gatherings and leaders were often the sons of neighbors.
In most of the riot cases brought before the state's attorney's office the
same difficulty was experienced. Whole blocks of residents were subpoenaed
and accurately described the assaults, but failed entirely to recognize any of
the assailants. The grand jury found the same obstacle. The foreman,
referring to the kind of testimony brought before that body by Negroes on
complaints against whites, said: " . . . . they [the grand jury] usually found
it to be hearsay testimony. Some other individual told them about So-and-So.
That a crime had been committted there was no question, but to get at the
root of it was absolutely impossible."
In spite of these difficulties, those familiar with the riot situation believe
that more arrests of active rioters might have been made and more convictions
obtained. A study of the riot deaths shows that justice failed to be as swift
and sure as the coroner's and grand juries recommended. The blame for
this failure is variously placed on the police, state's attorney, judge, or jury,
48
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
according to the prejudice of the one attempting to fix blame, or his connection
with any of these agencies. The fact remains that the punitive results of the
legal processes were too neghgible to furnish a proper deterrent to future
rioters.
Of the tUrty-eight persons whose death constituted the riot's principal
toU—
Fifteen met death at the hands of mobs. The coroners' jury recommended
that the members of the unknown mobs be apprehended. None were ever
found.
Six were killed under circmnstances establishing no criminal responsibility:
three white men were killed by Negroes in self-defense, and three Negroes
were shot by policemen in the discharge of their duty.
Four Negroes lost their hves in the Angelus riot. The coroner made no
recommendations, and the cases were not carried farther.
Four cases — two Negro and two white — led to recommendations from the
coroner's jury for further investigation of certain persons, but sufficient
evidence was lacking for indictments.
Niae cases resulted in indictments, four of which led to convictions.
Thus in only four cases was criminal responsibility for death fixed and
punishment meted out to the guilty.
Indictments and convictions are divided according to the race of the
persons criminally involved as follows:
Negro
Whi'i'e
Cases
Persons
Cases
Feisons
Indictments*
Convictions
6
2
17
3
3
2
4
2
* For brief description of cases see Appendix.
There is evidence that the riot of 1919 aroused many citizens of both races
to a quickened sense of the suffering and disgrace which had come and might
come again to the community, and developed a determination to prevent a
recurrence of so disastrous an outbreak of race hatred. This was manifest,
as another section of this report shows, in the courage and control which people
of both races displayed on at least two occasions in 1920 when confronted
suddenly with events out of which serious riots might easily have grown.
This examination of the facts of the riot reveals certain outstanding
features, as follows:
1. The riot violence was not continuous, hoxir by hour, but was inter-
mittent.
2. The greatest number of injiuries occurred in the district west of Went-
worth Avenue, inclusive of Wentworth, and south of the Chicago River to
MILK WAS DISTRIBUTED FOR THE BABIES
PROVISIONS WERE SUPPLIED BY THE RED CROSS TO HUNDREDS
OF NEGRO FAMILIES
THE CHICAGO RIOT 49
Fifty-fifth Street, or, broadly speaking, in the Stock Yards district. The
next greatest number occurred in the so-called "Black Belt," Twenty-second
to Thirty-ninth streets, inclusive, Wentworth to the lake, exclusive of Went-
worth; Thirty-ninth to Fifty-fifth streets, inclusive, Clark Street to Michigan
Avenue, exclusive of Michigan.
3. Organized raids occurred only after a period of sporadic clashes and
spontaneous mob outbreaks.
4. Main thoroughfares witnessed 76 per cent of the injuries on the South
Side. The streets which suffered most severely were State, Halsted, Thirty-
first, Thirty-fifth, and Forty-seventh. Transfer corners were always centers
of trouble.
5. Most of the rioting occurred after working hours. This was particularly
true after the street-car strike started.
6. Gangs, particularly among the young whites, formed definite nuclei for
crowd and mob leadership. "Athletic clubs" supplied the leaders of many gangs.
7. Whites usually employed fists and clubs in their attacks upon Negroes;
Negroes used firearms and knives in their attacks.
8. Crowds and mobs engaged in rioting were usually composed of a small
nucleus of leaders and an acquiescing mass of spectators. The leaders were
young men, usually between sixteen and twenty-one. Dispersal was most
effectively accomphshed by sudden, unexpected gun fire.
9. Rmnor kept the crowds in an excited, potential mob state. The press
was responsible for wide dissemination of much of the inflammatory matter
in spoken rumors, though editorials calculated to aUay race hatred and help
the forces of order were factors in the restoration of peace.
10. The police lacked suf&cient forces for handhng the riot; they were
hampered by the Negroes' distrust of them; routing orders and records were
not handled with proper care; certain oflS.cers were undoubtedly unsuited to
poUce or riot duty.
11. The personnel of the miUtia employed in this riot was of an unusually
high t3rpe. This unquestionably accounts for the confidence placed in them
by both races. Riot training, definite orders, and good staff work contributed
to their eflSciency.
12. The machinery of justice was affected by prejudices and political
rivalries.
From their reviews of the evidence brought before them, the coroner's
jury and the grand jury presented analyses of the riot, and each made recom-
mendations of a remedial sort. These recommendations follow:
coroner's jury recommendations
1. We believe that a representative committee of white and colored people,
working together, could suggest and bring about the necessary and advisable changes.
2. In specifically attacking the housing situation: The correction of the evil by
enlarging the living quarters and placing them in a better sanitary state would in
50 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
part solve the difficulty. We believe voluntary segregation would follow and to a
considerable extent remove one cause of unrest.
This is a matter that might well be considered by the Real Estate Board and by
improvement clubs and organizations of property owners in the South Division, and
by the Health Department.
3. In regard to the "athletic clubs": Properly governed and controlled they
should be encouraged and fostered and, when necessary, disciplined.
4. Hoodlimiism evokes this comment: Citizeiis of Chicago, make your hoodlum
element amenable to law, break up and destroy hoodlumism as you would a pestilence.
It is our belief that this element can be brought under control of the law, and it must
be done if we are to remove the danger of rioting from any cause. Vicious hoodlum-
ism, entirely aside from race hatred, was present in practically all of the thirty-eight
killings, known as race riots.
5. We earnestly urge that fathers and mothers teach their children the lesson
of remaining at home when rioting occurs, and furthermore, they should be kept
occupied, as idleness and bad association often cause young people to become bad
men and women.
6. One remedy for race rioting is a speedy conviction and punishment of those
guilty, regardless of race or color, giving all concerned a fair and impartial hearing.
7. Tolerance must be practiced between both white and colored in the discussion
of the race problem, practiced in our everyday intercourse, in public conveyances,
and in meetings of all kinds.
8. Our attention was called strikingly to the fact that at the time of race rioting
the arrests made for rioting by the police of colored rioters were far in excess of the
arrests made of white rioters. The failure of the police to arrest impartially at the
time of rioting, whether from insufficient effort or otherwise, was a mistake and had a
tendency to further incite and aggravate the colored population.
9. In cases of murder it is of the utmost importance that expert crimiaologists
should arrive on the scene at the earliest possible moment, and that a complete exami-
nation may be made of the scene of the murder before the body is removed or handled,
and while the necessary evidence for conviction may be obtained, which otherwise
may be lost or destroyed. We have found in the riot cases many instances where the
removal of bodies by inexperienced men, in some cases police officers, destroyed
valuable evidence.
We heartily concur with Coroner Hoffman as to the fact that Chicago badly needs
a permanent murder-investigation squad, which the coroner planned and has so
persistently advocated in the past. We believe that this squad should be equipped
with motor vehicles and subject to call at any hour of the day or night. This squad
should consist of six or more trained policemen, working in relays of eight hours, a
photographer, a finger-print expert, a coroner's physician and chemist, the coroner or
deputy coroner, and a state's attorney. In addition thereto, two trained poHcemen
from the police department precinct wherein the murder occurred, and a representative
of the City News Bureau. This squad should be available for immediate service, and
it should be the duty of the police at the scene of the murder to allow no one to handle
the body or enter premises where murder occurred until the arrival of the squad.
10. The police force should be enlarged. It is too small to cope with the needs
of Chicago, and under the present living conditions the policeman's pay is entirely
inadequate and should be substantially increased.
THE CHICAGO RIOT 51
Superannuated and incapacitated members of the police force should be retired
under a proper and satisfactory pension system.
There shoidd be organization of the force for riot work, for the purpose of control-
ling rioting in its incipient stages.
GBAND JXTRY RECOMMENDATIONS
1. It is reasonable to beUeve that the colored people, if provided with proper
housing facilities and an area sufficient in extent, would voluntarily segregate them-
selves. The present neighborhood known as the "Black Belt" could, by reasonable
pubhc improvement, assisted by our leading pubhc citizens, be made a decent place
to Uve in for a much larger population than it now accommodates This move-
ment shoiild enUst the financial and moral support of the industries employing large
numbers of the black race.
2. Facilities for bathing, playgrounds, poUce protection, better housing and
neighborhood conditions, are matters deserving the earnest attention of the proper
authorities.
3. The employment of the colored people is imperative to the weKare of this com-
munity. Discriminating against the Negro, or, in other words, failure to give him an
opportunity to make an honest UveUhood after having induced him to migrate to
this section of the country, simply adds to the already far too great number of hood-
lums that infest our city.
4. This jury feels that in order to aUay further race prejudice and to prevent
the re-enactment of shameful crimes committed during the recent riots, efficient
prompt, and fearless justice on the part of the law-enforcing officers, as weU as on
the part of the judiciary, be meted out to the guilty ones, whether they be white or
black.
5 There is a lack of co-operation and harmony among the agencies of law
enforcement, which impairs their efficiency, leads to miscarriages of justice, and wastes
the pubhc funds.
6. The parole law shoiild be amended so that a criminal once paroled and sub-
sequently arrested may not a second time be paroled.
7. The efficiency of the police force would be further greatly increased by the
co-operation of the judiciary in refusing to grant wholesale continuances without
carefully scrutinizing the results thereof when members of the police force are required
to act as witnesses.
8. The pohce department is in need of a thorough house-cleaning. Every officer,
no matter what his position is, who fails in his fuU duty should be dismissed. Graft-
ers and those who allow themselves to be dominated by political influences, who are
paid to protect the lives and property of our citizens, should be dismissed and punished
to the fullest extent of the law.
9. It is the opinion of this jury that the police force is also inadequate in numbers,
and at least one thousand (1,000) officers should be added to the existing force.
10. Pohcemen who have arrived at the age where their usefulness is a matter
of the past should be pensioned, notwithstanding their present number, and not-
withstanding the fact that the pension fund is already taxed to its utmost. The
needed funds for this purpose should be provided.
II payment of salaries to pubhc officers commensurate with the increased
cost of living.
52 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
12. The authorities employed to enforce the law should thoroughly investigate
clubs and other organizations posing as athletic and social clubs which really are
organizations of hoodlums and criminals formed for the purpose of furthering the
interest of local poKtics.
13. The jury also finds that vice of all kinds is rampant in the "Black Belt," and
a thorough cleaning up of that district is absolutely essential to the peace and welfare
of the commtmity.
14. PoHtical influence to a large extent is responsible for the brazenness with
which the Chicago biun, pickpocket, and gun and hold-up man operates. It is also
the opinion of the jury that the indeterminate-sentence law frequently operates in a
miscarriage of justice, and it is our opinion that the court should fix the sentence of
offenders at the time of their conviction.
15. Because of the large number of young boys involved in the rioting, the jury
recommends the resumption of the activities of the Y.M.C.A., the Knights of Colum-
bus, and Salvation Army, as well as other similar organizations
CHAPTER II
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS
I. Minor Clashes in and near Chicago
I. CLASHES IN CHICAGO PRECEDING THE RIOT OF I919
The race riot of 19 19 in Chicago was preceded by a long series of more
or less serious clashes between whites and Negroes. Some of these are discussed
in the section of this report deaUng with contacts in recreation. Others are
here described to show the development of friction and conflict leading up to
the 1919 riot. Two brutal and improvoked murders of Negroes by gangs
of white hoodlums preceded the riot by only a few weeks.
In many of the antecedent clashes a conspicuous part was played by gangs
or clubs of white boys and young men. These operations frequently showed
organization, and the gangsters were often armed with brass knuckles, clubs,
and revolvers.
Some of the earlier clashes, however, did not have their origin in gang
activities. For instance, it may be that the resentment by whites of the
coming of Negroes into their neighborhood inspired the crowd of boys between
twelve and sixteen years of age who, in February, 191 7, stoned a four-flat
building at 456 West Forty-sixth Street. Two Negro families moved into
the two second-floor flats of this building. The next afternoon about 100
boys from nearby schools stoned the building. The two Negroes attempted
to remonstrate but were driven back. One of them reached the office of the
agent of the building, who notified the police. A patrol wagon responded,
but the boys had disappeared. After it had gone the boys reappeared and
renewed the stoning. Every window in the upper part of the building was
broken. On a second riot cafl Captain Caughlin and Lieutenant James
McGann and a squad of pohce rescued the Negroes, who shortly afterward
sought other quarters.
Detectives learned the identity of thirty of the boys, some of whom con-
fessed. With their parents they were compelled to appear at the Stock
Yards police station and pay for the damage inflicted.
The death of a white man, wrongly thought to have been murdered by
Negroes, led to rioting on the night of July 3, 1917, in which a party of white
men in an automobile fired upon a group of Negroes at Fifty-third and Federal
streets. Apparently no one was hit. Earlier in the evening Charles A.
Maronde, a saloon-keeper at 5161 South State Street, had been found dead
following an altercation with Negroes whose passage through his premises
had irritated him. Two shots were fired, but it was not proved whether by
S3
54 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Maronde or by the Negroes. A coroner's jury found that he had died of
heart disease.
In July and August, 1917, there were minor outbreaks of trouble between
Negroes and naval recruits from the Great Lakes Naval Training Station.
In some instances recruits and in others Negroes were reported to be the
aggressors.
When organized gangs took part in clashes the results were more serious.
A typical case started in the Kohler saloon at South State and Fifty-first
streets on May 27, 19 19, two months before the riot.
A group of about ten white men entered the saloon together. When a
Negro came in and called for a drink, one of the whites knocked him down and
kicked him out of the front door. Arming himself with brickbats, the Negro
called on the whites to come out. The gang crossed to another saloon on the
opposite corner, and when they left it shortly afterward, they carried revolvers.
They then beat the Negro, cutting his head. Dr. Homer Cooper, whose
ofi&ce is above the Kohler saloon, and one of his patients, Michael Pantaliono,
witnessed the affray.
Roscoe C. Johnston, a Negro plain-clothes man who had been on the
police force only four days, was told of the trouble by a citizen and foimd the
gang in the second saloon. As he approached. Mart. Flannigan drew a revolver.
Johnston called two plain-clothes men, who chanced to be outside, to summon
a patrol wagon, then followed the gang back to the Kohler saloon and disarmed
and arrested Flannigan. Johnston found three automatic revolvers behind
the bar in the saloon and arrested three more of the men for carrying concealed
weapons. Later six more of the men were taken when the patrol wagon
returned to Kohler's, including Patten, the bartender.
The cases of these ten men were dismissed when they came to trial a week
later before Judge Grant; lack of evidence was the reason given. Flannigan
explained that he carried the gun to protect himself whUe taking money to
the bank. These young men were said by onlookers to be members of " Ragen's
Colts."
"Ragen's Colts" were frequently identified with lawlessness and specific
clashes before and during the riot. They are typical of the gangs and " athletic
clubs" which were responsible for much disorder, including attacks upon
Negroes. This organization was sponsored by Frank Ragen, a politician whose
record and methods have long offended the decent citizenship of Chicago.
As a member of the Board of Cook County Commissioners, he aUied himself
with a spoils-seeking majority against which two or three public-spirited
members waged a courageous struggle. His participation in the Board's
deliberations was marked by such conduct as the hurling of a large record
book and inkwells at members who opposed the "ring."
As part of his poUtical following he gathered about him the young hoodlums
who make up an important element of the club on which he bestowed his name.
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 55
Ragen's influence has often been able to protect the "Colts" from punishment
for criminal acts, including the persecution of Negroes.
Other "athletic" and "social" clubs, though not so notorious, have been
of a like nature. Miss Mary McDowell, head resident of the University of
Chicago Social Settlement, told the Commission that she knew of five such
clubs composed of young men between seventeen and twenty- two:
Especially before the war they were always under obligation to some politician
for renting a store and paying the initial expenses of their clubs. That 's what started
them, and it has come to be quite the fashion to get an empty store with big panes of
glass on which they like to put their names. I am speaking now of " back of the Yards"
conditions.
The Ragen Club is mostly Irish-American. The others are from the second
generation of many nationalities. I don 't think they have deliberate criminal desires.
I think they get into these ways, and then they are used and exploited often by poUti-
cians It is about the most dangerous thing that we have in the city. Whether
the police could not stop them at the time of the riot on the Monday when they went
down Forty-seventh Street with firearms showing in their hands in autos (a young
man living with us can give you his afiidavit on it) and shouting as they went, "We'll
get those niggers! " I don't suppose anybody would want to say, but the fact remains
that nobody did stop them. They went across Halsted Street towards State Street.
Four poUcemen were there and they never stopped them at all.
Miss Jane Addams, of HuU-House, also described to the Commission the
way in which the ward pohticians are responsible for these clubs. She said:
The politicians have had a new trick the last few years aU over the city. They
pay rent, as Miss McDowell said, for clubs of boys below the voting age. The poHti-
cian used to take care of the young voter and the boy nearly a voter, but now he comes
down to boys of thirteen and fourteen and fifteen and begins to pay their rent and
give them special privileges and keeps the poUce ofi when they are gambling. The
whole boy problem is very much more mixed up with these — ^I won't call them gangs,
but they are clubs with more or less poUtical afl&Uations. They are not always loyal
to their poKtical boss, but he expects them to be and they are, more or less.
The gangs and "athletic clubs" became more boldly active in the spring
of 19 1 9. On the night of June 21, five weeks before the riot, there were two
wanton murders of Negroes by gangs of white hoodlums. One of the Negroes
was Sanford Harris, the other Joseph Robinson. There is no evidence that
either had been offensive in any way, yet they were deUberately killed by gangs.
There is evidence that the gangs in the neighborhoods of these crimes had
spread such fear among Negro residents that murders of this kind were not
unexpected.
Harris lived on Dearborn Street between Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh
streets. About 11:30 p.m. on June 21 he escorted from his home to a street
car at State and Fifty-seventh streets a woman friend who had been calling on
his wife. A Negro man, woman, and child alighted from this car, and Harris
walked behind them west on Fifty-seventh Str??t on his way home, A nmnbeT
S6 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
of white youths approached the man, woman, and child, one of the gang saying,
"Let's get that nigger, " referring to the man. Because of the child's presence
they were allowed to pass unmolested.
Then the gang caught sight of Harris, who started to run across a vacant lot
toward his home. A shot was fired and Harris fell after going a short distance.
He died at the Cook County Hospital from peritonitis due to the buUet wound.
A woman living near Fifty-seventh and Dearborn streets caught hold of
one of the gang who had a pistol in his hand. A plain-clothes policeman
appeared, and she called upon him to arrest the gangster who, she said, had
shot Harris. The detective merely asked how she was able to pick out the
man who had fired the shot. Apparently he ignored the fact that the man
held a revolver in his hand, nor does it appear that he even looked to see whether
it had been recently discharged.
A Mrs. T — , who lived above the saloon at the northwest corner of State
and Fifty-seventh streets, had witnessed the assault on Harris from her back
porch. When other plain-clothes men came upon the scene, she told them
that the gang had hidden under the viaduct on Fifty-seventh Street west of
Dearborn, but there were no arrests and apparently no attempts to make any.
Earher the same evening, an altercation had taken place between a number
of white boys from sixteen to twenty years of age and Thomas Johnson,
a Negro who, with a Mrs. Moss, conducted a store next to a saloon at
State and Fifty-seventh streets. The boys had been loafing outside the
door and using foul language. Johnson remonstrated with them and finally
got a stick and started after them. A number of other Negroes aided in
driving off the boys, who, as they left, threatened to "get a gang and come
back and get you." It is thought that this was the gang that killed Harris.
Joseph Robmson, the other Negro kiUed that same night, had hved at
514 West Fifty-fourth Place. He was forty-seven years of age, a laborer for
the Union Coal Company, and had a wife and six children, the oldest seventeen
years of age. He was attacked by a gang at Fifty-fifth Street and Princeton
Avenue, apparently without provocation, and received knife wounds in the
back and left leg. He died from shock and hemorrhages on June 23.
A man named Morden, who hved at 5713 Drexel Avenue, testified at the
Robinson inquest that he had met a gang of from fifteen to thirty men at Fifty-
fifth Street and Shields Avenue about a block from Princeton Avenue. He said
the gang was walking rapidly east and divided to pass him. He was not far
away when Robinson was attacked. The Negro had evidently been coming
in the opposite direction, west on Fifty-fifth Street (Garfield Boulevard) and
the assault began the instant he met the gang. Morden heard a shot fired
and saw Robinson stagger across the street to a candy store. He saw several
men rush forward and help Robinson in the door as the gang scattered. Morden
declared that several of the gang carried clubs, and that he saw several of these
during the assault.
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 57
Nicholas Gianakas, who conducted the candy store at 5458 Princeton
Avenue, into which the wounded man had run, testified that he heard the shot
and saw people outside running in all directions. He saw Robinson coming
in the door with blood running off him. Presently Robinson got up and went
outside to sit on the curb. Gianakas called up the police station for an ambu-
lance. He saw no weapons in the hands of any of the crowd outside and
recognized none of them. He heard people saying that a mob had come from
"the Yards."
Peter Paul Byrne, a patrolman, testified that he had been called from his
beat at Fifty-fifth and State streets by a man in an automobile, who drove him
to the candy store. There he also telephoned for an ambulance, then went
out and rounded up "some kids" on suspicion. There was a big crowd
around, he said, men, women, and children.
One man testified at the inquest that an acquaintance spoke of having
seen a Greek run out of the candy store and hit Robinson on the head with a
hammer or hatchet. But this acquaintance, when called to testify, denied
the story.
Captain Caughlin, in charge of the police of that precinct, testified that a
number of men had been arrested on suspicion, but all of them had been
discharged because none of them knew anything about the matter. People
had been rurming in every direction, he said, there had been a good deal of
commotion, and he seemed to think it would have been virtually impossible
for the pohce to find any of the guilty persons.
C. L. McCutcheon, a Negro railway postal clerk, Hving at 517 West
Fifty-fourth Place, testified at the inquest that he had been threatened by
mobs, that a gang over on the boulevard had so terrorized the fifteen or twenty
"colored boys" in the neighborhood for a long time that none of them dared
to go about alone; that he himself had two boys who would not go on Halsted
Street for $10 a trip.
Following the killing of Harris and Robinson notices were posted along
Garfield Boulevard and some neighboring streets saying that the authors of
the notices would "get" all the "niggers" on July 4, 1919. These notices
also called for help from sympathizers. They predicted that there would be
a street-car strike on the appointed day, and that then they expected to run
all Negroes out of the district. Some witnesses at the inquest stated that
the Negroes of the district, who up to that time had done nothing to protect
themselves, were advised by friendly whites to "prepare for the worst," as
trouble could scarcely be avoided.
2. RACIAL OUTBREAK IN WAUKEGAN
May 31 and June 2, 1920
Waukegan, Illinois, thirty-six miles north of Chicago and near the Great
Lakes Naval Training Station of the United States Navy, was the scene of
S8 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
two riotous attacks during the nights of May 31 and June 2, 1920, on a lodging-
house for Negroes, by bands of recruits on leave from the Naval Training
Station. No hves were lost, and only two persons were hurt, neither of them
seriously.
These outbursts scarcely classify as race riots. The chief motive seems to
have been a desire for excitement on the part of young and active naval recruits.
The Sherman House was a dilapidated place on Genesee Street, the main
street of the town. It had been abandoned by whites and was run as a lodging-
house for thirty or thirty-five unmarried Negroes, chiefly factory workers.
On the first floor was a poohoom and soft-drink "parlor," which some of the
naval recruits had patronized.
A mischievous Negro boy of ten years, George Taylor, was primarily respon-
sible for the outbreaks. On the afternoon of May 31 he and his Uttle sister had
been throwing stones at passing automobiles in Sheridan Road. One of these
missiles broke the wind shield of an automobile driven by Lieutenant A. F.
Blazier, an oflBicer at the Great Lakes Station, who allowed this fact to become
known to some of the recruits at the station. Late that evening an unorganized
mob of recruits assembled at the Sherman House and threw stones, breaking
nearly all the windows. The mob was rushed by all the available pohce in
Waukegan, who took six prisoners. One reported incident was the chasing of
a Negro by hah a dozen bluejackets and marines and his rescue by the police.
Provost guards from the Naval Station rounded up the rioters and took
them back to Great Lakes, thus ending the outbreak.
Two nights later, or June 2, 150 boys on leave from the Naval Training
Station renewed the attack. They gathered in a ravine near the hotel and
at ten o'clock they poured forth, led by a sailor carrying an American flag.
The police had been warned and were ready with reinforcements.
About seventy-five feet from the lodging-house the poUce ordered the
attackers to halt; no attention was paid to the command, and they fired
their riot guns in the air, wounding two marines who were some distance
away. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued, diuring which the pohce seized the
flag and arrested two marines. The Great Lakes boys gathered about the
police station and demanded their comrades.
Commander M. M. Frucht, executive officer of the Naval Station, who
had akeady been sent to Waukegan by Commandant Bassett, appeared at
the door and quieted the crowd with a promise that all concerned would have
a square deal. He also advised them to return at once to the Naval Station.
The pohce released the two prisoners and gave back the flag. Two hundred
provost guards from the Naval Station arrived in motor trucks while the crowd
was at the pohce station.
Waukegan youths, evidently banded together for the purpose, searched
the house of Edward Dorsey, Negro, at 905 Market Street, on the night of
June 5. Ten of them, ranging from seventeen to twenty- two years, were
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS S9
arrested. They said they had heard that five white persons were held prisoners
in Dorsey's home and that it was their intention to effect a rescue. It was
asserted that a number of provost guards accompanied the crowd to the
Dorsey house.
The general spirit of the people of Waukegan regarding Negroes may be
judged from a proclamation by Mayor J. F. Bidinger, in which he disclaimed
for the people of the city any intention to harass the Negro. Referring to
reports that some of the white people of the town had participated in the
disturbances, the mayor said: "In the first they did not, and in the second
in no great numbers. Hoodlums generally run true to form and seldom
overlook ready-made opportunity to manifest their peculiar taste in deviltry.
Hence the mixing of a few of them into these fracases signifies nothing in so
far as our general pubhc is concerned."
Observers agreed with the mayor that the disturbances were not race
riots. In this connection his proclamation said:
Now it is a definitely ascertained fact that no adult Negro was even remotely
connected with the first stone- throwing; that the colored people did not then retaliate
and have not since sought to retaliate in even the smallest measure; and that all
the episodes have consisted simply of an attack upon people who have been as inof-
fensive throughout the entire affair as they could weU be. AU of which I submit
stamps this afiair as an example of disorderly conduct indeed, but not as a race riot.
3. THE "ABYSSINIAN" AFFAIR
Sunday afternoon, June 20, 1920, a small group of Negroes styling them-
selves "Abyssinians" ended a parade of their "order" in front of a cafe at
209 East Thirty-fifth Street frequented by both whites and Negroes. After
a brief ceremony one of the leaders produced an American flag and deliberately
burned it. He then began to destroy a second flag in the same manner.
Two white policemen remonstrated with the men but were intimidated by
threats and a brandishing of revolvers. They left immediately to notify
pohce headquarters. Patrolman Owens, Negro, arrived as a second flag was
lighted. Rushing up to the leader who held the burning flag in his hands
and remonstrating with the group for their disloyalty, he was immediately
shot and wounded. Robert Lawson Rose, a sailor on leave from the Great
Lakes Naval Training Station, protested against the destruction of the flag
and he too was shot; he staggered into the doorway of a cigar store at
207 East Thirty-fifth Street. Some of the parade leaders got rifles from a
closed automobile which had followed the parade and was standing near by,
and fired into the cigar store. One of these bullets killed Joseph Hoyt, a clerk
in the store. The sailor, Rose, also died from his wound. In aU about twenty-
five shots were fired during the fracas, and several persons were injured.
The men who did the shooting escaped but were arrested later. Crowds
attracted by the demonstration quickly dispersed when the shooting began.
6o THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
and from then on there was virtually no disorder except for attacks at a railroad
station on three Negro ministers who were returning to the city and knew
nothing of the shooting. Nine Negroes were arrested and held to the grand
jury. One of them was Grover Cleveland Redding, thirty-seven or thirty-
eight years of age, who was the "prophet" of the "Abyssinian" order in
Chicago. Redding, who had admitted the shooting of Rose, was held with
Oscar McGavick for murder, and the others as accessories after the fact.'
The exact reason for this flag-burning has not been disclosed, although
it was apparently intended to symbolize the feeling of the "Abyssinian"
followers that it was time to forswear allegiance to the American government
and consider themselves under allegiance to the Abyssinian government.
The guns used in the shooting were found by the police in a garage, together
with the regaUa of the " Abyssinians, " and much of their printed matter and
other effects.^
The "Abyssinian" affair might easily have been turned into another
great outbreak such as that of July, 1919. But the police, profiting by their
experience of the previous year, were vigilant. They had organized an emer-
gency force which was quickly mobilized and put in service in the district.
Moreover, there was evident such a feeling of restraint on the part of both
whites and Negroes that they combined to hunt down the offenders.
Indicative of this spirit of co-operation to prevent racial conflict, and helpful
to it, was the careful handling of the matter by the press. Practically every
newspaper gave prominence to the way in which the two races worked together
to this end, and all dwelt on the courageous action of the Negro policeman.
A picture printed in the Herald-Examiner the following morning showed
people of the two races fraternizing after the shooting. The Daily News in
reporting the affray said that only the co-operation of the white and Negro
merchants of the district stopped the disturbance; that rowdies in the neighbor-
hood were ready for a fight, but that "the better class of whites and Negroes
worked directly with the police to stop any such trouble as a recurrence of
the rioting last summer, which occurred in the same neighborhood."
To understand the "Abyssinian" affair an acquaintance with other
characters, certain group propaganda and movements, is necessary. The
" Back to Africa " movement, which lent fervor and enthusiasm to the develop-
ment of lawlessness and wanton killing by this group of unlettered Negroes,
has been in progress for more than two years. The Black Star Steamship
Line and the Universal Improvement Association, headed by a Negro, Marcus
Garvey, a British subject, were organized to estabhsh commercial relations
' Redding had admitted having shot Rose, and evidence against others for their paiticipa-
tion in the killing, while not conclusive, was rather convincing.
'At the trial of these men six months later, Grover Cleveland Redding and Oscar
McGavick were sentenced to hang for the murder of Rose and Hoyt. The others held for
trial were released. Redding has since been hanged.
/ \
THE LION OF JUDAH
T Y
ETWEE N THE - ^
KING OF ETHIOPIA
J, Mi THE
UNITED STATES
///.v j^'ojrslv Mi'uclik SI.. Kbu] of Kiiujs of Eihiol'la ''
COM MERCIAL ' RELATIONS
BETWEEN -THE TWO COUNTRIES
--•■Mu-.l -.'.', .\.M;--,\?.ai>;i, Ofcembcf 2;'. I90o.
;^^Oi(•uliun advised bs ihr Scimc March !2, I'W. ■
!{';:i!M;(l ],^ tin: ! 'rrsi.lent , Mardi 17. I^IH.
Kiiis; oi i''[ii'':>ia !!oi.:iu'il .u Kauiicution, ,\ugu-<t 2. j'>(>s.
iU THj- rKl-SlDi-XT Ol- TilK-UKlTED STATES
OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
«( A/HEREAS y ;:..iv sh (/i'trHiK'tx-i- hrtw«ii the UnJlfd Smtcs of
¥¥ AmeTica .;'hJ U;-^ ;\!ajv.^t)- Menetik !!.. King of Kings of
Etl'i!00'3 ''■ :■ >•!!■•.■'.-:..! !<i'i iisi- iui.-iUy- seventh day oi Dertf»»-
ber one i -i:., ;-' : :■-, '•'^: ::'' .;:'>• ;'i!o( , slii: on»;i!):U ol \v!"rtch ttraty.
being m ?'.i, ;.;., <■ -i ^^ ; i'
i; i in'Siai;*'-., "(;j H«.irtl lor word as
PROPAGANDA LITERATURE USED BY "ABYSSINIANS" IN RECRUITING
FOLLOWERS
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 6i
with Africa. To arouse interest and secure funds for the enterprise, sentiment
has been created among Negroes for the developing of sections of Africa where
they may govern themselves and build up their own institutions and commerce.
The movement has gained thousands of adherents; although the language of
its appeals has frequently been extreme, it has engaged in no dangerous or
unpatriotic activities. Its connection with the tragic incident lies in the
impUcation that "Back to Africa" means away from the land of unfair treat-
ment, and thus suggests contempt for the United States.
The "Star Order of Ethiopia and Ethiopian Missionaries to Abyssinia"
appears to be an illegitimate offspring of the Universal Improvement Associa-
tion and the Black Star Steamship Line. The visit of the Abyssinian Mission
to this country a year ago to renew a treaty between their country and the
United States probably served as an added suggestion. The leaders of the
movement were Redding, secretary of the order; Joseph Fernon, called
the " Great Abyssinian," and his son, "The Prince." Together with a "Dr."
R. D. Jonas, a white man who for several years has engaged in sundry activities
among Negroes, they organized this movement among a class of Negroes too
ignorant to exercise restraint over their racial resentments.
Emotionalism was aroused and a semi-rehgious twist was given through
their appeals, which played more or less injudiciously on the desire of Negroes
to improve their economic status and to escape from what some of them
regard as oppression, either in this or in other countries. One or two other
similar organizations are making such an appeal, not only to Negroes in this
country, but to other dark-skinned races throughout the world. It is sought
to weld them aU together into a great nation. Ghttering promises are set
before the illiterate element of the Negro race, which has responded sufficiently
to fatten the purses of some, at least, of the "prophets."
Redding was one of these "prophets." He was influenced by the white
man, "Dr." R. D. Jonas, and had purchased from him the robe or toga
which he wore during the parade of June 20. According to those who knew
both men, he had first "stolen Jonas' thunder" and the following out of which
the "Star Order of Ethiopia" had been manufactured. Having lost this,
Jonas was wilting to sell the regaUa.
Jonas, it appears, had been promoting one movement after another among
illiterate Negroes for six or seven years. At one time he conducted a
co-operative store on State Street, in which he sold shares. He was often
an orator at street gatherings and had been arrested a number of times. When
Alexander Dowie of Zion City died, Jonas is said to have attempted to put
himself into the vacant position. After the East St. Louis riots he appeared
in Chicago in an express wagon with signs indicating that he was collecting
funds for the Negroes of East St. Louis.
During the afternoon of the shooting, Jonas had been the principal speaker
at a small, orderly meeting of Negroes in Johnson's Hall, 3516 South State
62 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Street, at which he had launched a campaign for Mayor Thompson as a
third-party candidate for president of the United States. The Mayor, he
said, was the only man who could be trusted "to carry out Roosevelt's work"
and put through the treaty with Abyssinia which expired in 1917. He also
referred to the efforts of the Jews to return to Palestine and of the Irish to
free themselves from British domination, and suggested the desirability of a
coahtion of the Negro, Jewish, and Irish races. Redding's hold on many of
the Negroes was partly due to the fact that he is a Negro and claims to be a
native of Abyssinia, whereas Jonas is a white man.
Quite evidently the "Back to Abyssinia" movement was used as a means
for exploiting credulous Negroes. For one dollar they coiild purchase an
Abyssinian flag, a small pamphlet containing a prophecy relating to the return
of the black-skinned people to Africa, a copy of a so-called treaty between the
United States and Abyssinia, and a picture of the "Prince of the Abyssiaians."
Likewise when the propaganda had begun to take root, one might sign a blank
form which would commit him to return to "my motherland of Ethiopia" in
order that he might fiU any one of forty-four positions, such as electrical engineer,
mechanical draftsman, civil engineer, architect, chemist, sign-painter, cartoon-
ist, illustrator, traffic manager, teacher, auto-repairing, agriculture, and
poultry-raising. The blank itseK was headed:
STAR ORDER OF ETHIOPIA
AND
THE ETHIOPIAN MISSIONARY TO ABYSSINIA
"APrinceshallcomeout of Egypt. Ethiopia shall soon stretch
out her hands to God."— Ps. 68:31.
This is to certify that my name was given to Elder Grover Redding, Missionary
to Abyssinia, to show to my brothers in my motherland that I am with them, heart
and soul.
Oh, Wonderful Land, God remembers Thee. He shall dehver Thee from under
the heels of Thy Oppressors. He remembers when Asia condemned Him, and Europe
put Him to death, and it was Africa who haven him until King Herod was dead. It
was Africa's son who helped Bare his Cross up to Calvary. There was Africa's son
the Apostle Phillip met, and he carried the Gospel to Thy land. It was Thee whose
Queen came to King Solomon to prove him with hard questions. Ethiopia, Thou
was first on Earth; Thou shall be last, for Jehova has spoken it. (See Scrip: Zeph.
3:8, 9, 10; Isa. 18 Chap.; Ps. 68:30, 31.)
STAR ORDER OF ETHIOPIA
AND
ETHIOPIAN MISSIONARY TO ABYSSINIA
This is to certify that I have signed my name as an Ethiopian in America in
sympathy with our motherland Ethiopia. I henceforth denounce the name of Negro
which was given me by another race.
At this point the applicant declares himself ready at any time needed to
fill any of the positions in a hst below, which he has checked and which he is
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 63
qualified to fill. Blank space appears then for name, address, present occupa-
tion, city, state, and county. At the bottom appears the name of George
Gabriel, described as "Abyssinian" linguist and native of Abyssinia, together
with that of Grover C. Redding, secretary and missionary. The applicant
is requested to mail the blank to 1812 Thirteenth Street, Washington, D.C.,
in care of Mrs. Dabney, or 115 W. 138th Street, New York City, care of Charles
Manson, or Joseph Goldberg, Jaffa, Palestine.
The immediate inspiration of the Abyssinians, as previously suggested,
was a visit to this country, more than a year before, of a delegation from
Abyssinia, which had concerned itself with a renewal of the old treaty. It is
pointed out that the chief reason why Negroes should be interested in this
treaty is that they might use it to overthrow "Jim Crow" laws in certain
states. Under this treaty Abyssinians had been guaranteed the right to
travel at will in the United States under the protection of the federal govern-
ment. Men like Redding had evidently interpreted this to mean that under
such a treaty the United States would be bound to interfere in behalf of Abys-
sinians, if they should be discriminated against under a "Jim Crow" law.
Redding, however, had some sort of biblical interpretation for his move-
ment. He maintained that his mission was indicated in the Bible. He
quoted from the Scriptures these words: "So shaU the King of Assyria lead
away the Egyptian prisoners, the Ethiopian captives, young and old, to the
shame of Egj^t." Asserting that the Ethiopians do not belong here, and that
they should be taken back to their own country, he construed a bibhcal passage
as meaning that the time of their bondage in a foreign country should be the
expiration of a 300-year period. This period, he said, began in 1619, when
Negroes were first taken for piurposes of slavery from Africa to America. He
said that the burning of the flag was the symbol indicated to him through these
biblical passages, and the sign that Abyssinians should no longer stay in this
country.
As to the flag of Abyssinia, he had interpreted it thus: "The red means
the blood of Christ; the green, the grass on which he knelt for you and me;
the yellow for the clay. The Ethiopian flag is better known as 'Calvary's
flag.'"
Jonas, from whom Redding had obtained these ideas of a Negro Utopia
in Africa, claimed that he had introduced to President Wilson the Abyssinian
delegation which had come to this country. He claimed the credit for having
taken Redding into his home and cared for him several years ago at the behest
of Mrs. Jonas, who had told him that hewas a "smart young fellow."
The ceremonies and manifestations of the "Abyssinians" were marked by
such fanaticism that responsible Negroes repudiated them and condemned
the leaders along with other criminals and exploiters of the ignorant Negroes.
The Negro World, organ of the Universal Improvement Association and Black
Star Line, carried the following article.
64 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Appalled by the violence aroused on Sunday night, when an American flag was
burned and two men were killed by the Abyssinian zealots, colored leaders of the
Middle West have begun a systematic campaign to eliminate white exploitation among
the Negroes and to bring about better racial co-operation.
The Chicago police annoimced today that all the men wanted in the case, except
two, are under arrest. They also promised that the career of Grover Cleveland
Redding, self-styled "Prince of Abyssinia," and identified as a ringleader in the
affair, wUl enter a new phase tomorrow when the frock-coated suspect is formally
charged with murder, accessory to murder and rioting.
Oscar McGavick, one of the men sought, was arrested in Pittsburgh today.
"BUI" Briggs and Frank Heans were taken into custody here. This leaves the police
list with only two names, the Femons, father and son. "Dr." R. D. Jonas, known on
the South Side as a professional agitator, was released today, no evidence having been
found of his direct connection with the shooting. Federal officials are investigating him .
According to the opinions of some of the leaders among Chicago Negroes the
"Abyssinian movement," from which Simday m'ght's trouble indirectly resulted, is a
legitimate and valid enterprise. It is but one of the manifestations of that bubbling
activity which today characterizes the colored people of America in their struggle for
race progression.
The trouble lies, they claim, in a group of exploiters and mountebanks, who,
imauthorized by real leaders in the movement, have seized upon it as a meditun for per-
sonal gain. In Chicago two of these were Jonas and Redding, it is claimed.
Pertinent on this point also is the stand taken by the Chicago Defender,
among the most influential of the Negro publications, concerning the Abys-
sinians, which said editorially:
We warn all agitators, whether they be white or black, that this paper, standing as
it does for law and order, for justice to aU men, for that brotherhood without which no
coimtry can long prosper, and for the better element of our twelve nuUions, that we
condemn their disloyalty and will do all in ovir power to aid the constituted authorities
in crushing them.
The burning of the American flag by a group of self-styled Abyssinians at 3Sth St.
and Indiana Avenue last Simday evening, as a means of showing their contempt
for the United States, and the resultant murders that followed in the wake of this
demonstration, instead of accomplishing the end desired by these malcontents, acted
as a boomerang. Every black face portrayed indignation. Every black arm was
lifted to strike a blow at these law-breakers. This is our home, our country, our flag,
for whose honor and protection we will give our last drop of blood. With all our
shortcomings it can never truthfully be said that we are disloyal or impatriotic.
The real problem indicated by the "Abyssinian" affair is how to prevent
self-seekers from playing upon the superstitions and emotions of ignorant
Negroes, to the harm of others and the disturbance of the peace.
4. THE BARRETT MURDER
The murder of a white man, Thomas J. Barrett, by a Negro on September
20, 1920, is not particularly significant in itself. But it was committed in
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 65
the heart of the district where some of the worst rioting took place in 1919,
it created a situation which might easily have developed into another serious
riot, and it affords an example of prompt and effective police handling.
Forty-seventh and Halsted streets is the intersection of two main thorough-
fares used by Negroes returning home from work in the Stock Yards. The
neighborhood is one where gangs of hoodlums have attacked Negroes, and is
thickly settled with people who have shown considerable antagonism toward
Negroes.
Barrett, who was a motorman on the Chicago surface lines, was kiUed
shortly after seven o'clock in the evening. He had had his shoes shined at
the stand of William Sianis, 4720 South Halsted Street, and had purchased
a newspaper at Halsted and Forty-seventh streets at about 7:00 p.m. About
the same time three Negroes came out of the yards of Ready & Callaghan
on Halsted Street between Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh, and one of these
Negroes went to the news stand seeking a newspaper in which to roll up his
overalls. In an encounter with these Negroes, Barrett was fatally stabbed,
dying before he reached a hospital. His head was nearly severed from his
body.
The Negroes, pursued by a rapidly increasing crowd of whites, ran north
nearly a block on Halsted Street. They turned into a vacant lot and went
through alleys until they emerged on Forty-fifth Street near Emerald Avenue,
evidently trying to work their way east to the main Negro neighborhood.
The crowd, however, had thickened so rapidly that they took refuge in St.
Gabriel's Catholic Church, just east of Lowe Avenue.
The mob was checked by the appearance and quieting remarks of Father
Thomas M. Burke, pastor of the church. He told them that the Negroes had
sought sanctuary, that there were laws to punish them, and that it was not
the province of a mob to wreak summary vengeance.
Meanwhile the police were already arriving. A patrol wagon had left
the Stock Yards station about seven o'clock, and followed the pursuing crowd.
Acting Lieutenant BuUard telephoned at once to Chief Garrity, and extra
police were quickly thrown into the neighborhood to control the crowd.
Samuel C. Rank, lieutenant of poUce at the Thirteenth Precinct station,
Forty-seventh Place and Halsted Street, had received the alarm about seven
o'clock. He sent five detectives and followed shortly after to the scene of
the disturbance. He went into the church with Sergeant Brown and three
detectives. Lieutenant Rank forced a number of the mob to leave the church
and locked the doors. Captain Hogan, of the Tenth Police Precinct, and
Chief Garrity arrived about this time. The three Negroes were taken through
a rear entrance to a patrol wagon in the aUey and removed to the Hyde Park
police station, a considerable distance away.
The crowd in front of the church had grown by this time to 3,000 or 4,000.
In order to quiet them they were again addressed by Father Burke, who told
66 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
them the Negroes had been removed from the church. They dispersed
about 10:30 P.M.
Profiting by the experience of 1919 Chief Garrity made prompt use of
prearranged plans to check all such disorders in their incipiency. He immedi-
ately closed saloons and "clubs" in which young hoodlums were accustomed
to gather. He had the police patrol the streets by twos. He drew a "dead
line" to prevent Negroes from entering the district. With his forces well
organized and distributed, he set up headquarters at the Stock Yards Precinct
station and spent the night there, with Captain Westbrook, commander of
the second battalion of police, Captain Hogan, and Lieutenant Ira McDormell,
of the Desplaines Street station. Street cars and automobiles approaching
the police "dead line" were stopped and all Negro passengers warned off.
Street gatherings were broken up and people were searched for weapons.
People were also kept moving in the streets. This display of force undoubtedly
had its quietiag effect. Nevertheless, a stray Negro was here and there
attacked despite the vigilance of the police.
During the five or six hours followiag the murder, racial street fights
occurred at Forty-fifth Street and Wabash Avenue. A mob stormed a house
at 229 East Forty-fifth Street, attempted to burn it and did considerable
damage. Frank Gavin, a white man, 1509 Marquette Road, was shot in the
back during the mobbing of a Negro at Fifty-third Street and Raciae Avenue.
Hoodlimis pulled Negroes from street cars and beat them. A Negro who had
been dragged from a car at Thirty-ninth and Emerald Avenue, was rescued by
several white women after he had been severely beaten with clubs. A man
and a small boy, Negroes, were attacked by a gang at Fuller Park, Forty-fifth
Street and Shields Avenue. At Forty-seventh and Halsted streets three
Negroes were taken from a car and slugged, and two others had a similar
experience at Forty-Seventh Street and Union Avenue. Frank Stevens, a
white man, 3738 Langley Avenue, was badly injured by a crowd of Negroes
at Thirty-ninth Street and Normal Avenue.
Precautions were continued next day for the protection of Negroes working
in the Stock Yards, and frequenting the district where the disorders had
occurred. This district ran as far west as Racine Avenue and as far east as
Prairie; as far north as Thirty-second Street and as far south as Fifty-third
Street. Negroes working at the Stock Yards had police escorts to and from
their work, and the car lines on Halsted and Forty-seventh and Thirty-fifth
streets, and on Racine Avenue, which are much used by the Negroes, were
especially guarded. Only one clash was recorded the foUowing day. By
six o'clock Wednesday morning, thirty-seven hours after the murder, the
special police concentration was discontinued.
Nine persons in all were reported injured during this disturbance. Nine
men were arrested, including the three Negroes whom Barrett had encountered.
These three were: Samuel Hayes, forty years old, 519 East Thirty-fifth
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 67
Street; Henry Snow, thirty- two years old, 517 East Thirty-fifth Street;
and Frank Gatewood, forty-three years old, 3446 Prairie Avenue.
Witnesses at the inquest differed as to whether there was any provocation
for the stabbing of Barrett. Only one of them testified that he heard any of
the four persons say anything. This was Carl Duwell, a printer, 466 West
Twenty-fourth Place, who had just alighted from a Halsted Street car. He
said that Barrett was following the three colored men and seemed to be threat-
ening them, saying " You want to fight ? " One of the Negroes suddenly turned
and struck at Barrett, slashing his throat. The Negroes had been walking fast,
with Barrett following a few feet behind them. After he was struck, Barrett
staggered a few feet to the curb and fell.
Barrett's widow said he was not in the habit of carrying weapons, but it
was current talk that he had been arrested a number of times for street fights
with Negroes. He had been a policeman in the service of the South Park
Conamission, and was an ex-soldier. WiUiam Sianis, at whose stand Barrett
had his shoes shined just before the murder, said that Barrett was apparently
sober. Neighborhood gossip was to the effect that Barrett had been drinking
at McNally's saloon at Forty-seventh and Halsted streets. Also DuweU's
testimony indicated that Barrett had been drinking.
According to Police Captain Hogan, when the Negroes were arrested in
the church, knives were found on the persons of two of them. One of these,
Sam Hayes, admitted to the police at that time that he had stabbed a white
man at Forty-seventh and Halsted streets. His story was that when he asked
the newsboy at the comer for a newspaper in which to wrap his overalls,
Barrett threatened him and then struck him, and the stabbing followed.
During the night foUowing the murder. Chief of Police Garrity issued a
statement which was published conspicuously in the morning newspapers,
and was most effectively worded to prevent misunderstanding of the incident
and avert use of it to inflame racial hostility. The statement began:
There has been no race riot. The killing at Forty-seventh and Halsted streets
was merely a street-comer fight. There was grave danger that it would be followed
by serious trouble. Precautionary measures were taken at once to forestall the recur-
rence of the riots, with the destruction of life and property, of last summer.
This was followed by a detailed account of the special measures and
distribution of police to handle the situation.
II. The Springfield Riot
August 14-15, 1908
The race riot at Springfield, Illinois, in August, 1908, which cost the lives
of two Negroes and four white men, is an outstanding example of the racial
bitterness and brutality that can be provoked by unsubstantiated rumor or,
as in this case, by deliberate falsehood. The two Negro victims were innocent
and imoffending. They were lynched under the shadow of the capitol of
68 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Lincoln's state, within half a mile of the only home he ever owned, and two
miles from the monument which marks the grave of the great emancipator.
A second fundamental factor in the Springfield riot situation was the
fertile field prepared by admittedly lax law enforcement and by tolerance in
the community of vicious conditions, the worst of which were permitted to
surround the Negro areas.
The spark which touched off the explosion was the old story of the violation
of a white woman by a Negro, and not until the damage had been done was
its falsity confessed by the woman who had told it.
On the night of Friday, August 14, 1908, according to her story, Mrs.
H — , wife of a street-railway conductor, was asleep in her room. She was
alone in the house. She declared that a Negro entered, dragged her from her
bed to the back yard, and there committed the crime. She said she had
attempted to scream but was choked by her assailant, who left her lying uncon-
scious in the garden.
A Negro, George Richardson, who had been at work on a neighboring
lawn the day before the attack, was accused by Mrs. H — and was arrested
when he returned to work the next morning. He was placed in the county
jail and on August 19 he was indicted.
During inquiry by a special grand jury certain facts were disclosed concern-
ing Mrs. H — 's character, and she admitted that, though she had been
brutally beaten by a white man on the night indicated, Richardson was not
present and had no connection with the affair. She admitted that she had
not been raped. For reasons known only to herself, she wished to keep the
name of the real assailant a secret, and therefore she had accused Richardson.
She signed an affidavit exonerating him. Richardson had no criminal record.
He and two of his family were property owners in Springfield.
While Richardson was in custody and before he was exonerated, feeling
against him was intensified because of the murder, three or four weeks before,
of Clergy A. Ballard, a white man, by Joe James, a Negro tramp, who was a
drug and whiskey addict. James had been taken from a freight train and placed
in jaU for thirty days and had been released on the night of the crime. He
was charged with entering the room of Ballard's daughter, Blanche, at
night. Ballard grappled with him, but James broke away and ran. In the
struggle BaUard was mortally injured. James was found asleep in a park
near the Ballard home about noon the next day, under the influence of a
drug. He was tried and hanged, and his body was taken back to Mississippi
by his mother for interment. " Rev. Mr. Dawson, spiritual adviser of James,
stated that James declared he had no knowledge of the crime.
Springfield was, therefore, in a receptive mood when, on the morning of
Friday, August 15, it got the first rumors concerning the attack on Mrs. H — .
Richardson had been taken before her and partially identified. In the after-
noon, when it became known that he had been arrested, crowds gathered
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 69
about the jail. They seemed good-natured rather than blood-thirsty. It
was also known that James, accused of the Ballard murder, occupied a ceU in
the jail. The sheriff preserved order through the afternoon, no effort being
made to disperse the crowd of 300 or 400 persons. About five o'clock Richardson
and James were taken in an automobile to Sherman, north of Springfield, and
there they were transferred by train to Bloomington.
About 7:00 P.M. leadership began to develop in the mob about the jaU.
The leaders demanded the two Negroes, but were finally convinced by the
sheriff that they were not in the jail. Then the story spread that Harry
Loper, a restaurant keeper, had provided the automobile in which the men had
been removed. The crowd rushed to the restaurant five blocks away. In
response to the mob's hootings Loper appeared in the doorway with a firearm
in his hand. About 8:30 p.m. someone threw a brick through a plate-glass
window and in a few minutes the front of the restaurant had been smashed
out. Then followed the complete wrecking of the restaurant, as well as the
owner's automobile, which had been standing in front.
When the mob began to surge through the town the Fire Department was
called to disperse it, but the mob cut the hose. Control having been lost
by the sheriff and police. Governor Deneen called out the militia. The mob,
by this time very much excited, started for the Negro district through Washiag-
ton Street, along which a large number of Negroes lived on upper floors.
Raiding second-hand stores which belonged to white men, the mob secured
guns, axes, and other weapons with which it destroyed places of business
operated by Negroes and drove out all of the Negro residents from Washington
Street. Then it turned north into Ninth Street.
At the northeast corner of Ninth and Jefferson streets was the frame
barber shop of Scott Burton, a Negro. The mob set fire to this building.
From that point it went a block farther north to Madison Street and then turned
east and began firing aU the shacks in which Negroes and whites lived in that
street.
Burton, the first victim of the mob's violence, was lynched in the yard
back of his shop. The mob tied a rope around his neck and dragged him
through the streets. An effort was then made to burn the body, which had
been hung to a tree. This was at two o'clock in the morning.
About this time a company of militia arrived from Decatur, Illinois,
and proceeded through Madison Street to Twelfth Street, where the mob was
engaged in mutilating Burton's body, riddling it with bullets. The mob was
twice ordered to disperse, and the miUtia fired in the air twice. The third
time the troops fired into the ankles and legs of the mob. At least two of the
men in the mob were wounded and the mob quickly gave way.
By this time the Negroes were badly frightened and began leaving town.
Meanwhile, Governor Deneen had sent for more troops, including two regi-
ments from Chicago. Before the rioting ended 5,000 militiamen were patrolling
70 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
the streets of Springfield. On Saturday morning the militia began to arrive
in force, including detachments from Chicago. This was a comparatively
quiet day, but that night another Negro was l3Tiched within a block of the
State House. The mob gathered on the Court House Square and marched
south on Fifth Street to Monroe, west on Monroe to Spring, and south on
Spring to Edwards. At the southeast comer of Spring and Edwards streets
a Negro named Donegan and his family had lived for many years. Donegan
was eighty-four years old and owned the half-block of groimd where he lived.
He was found sleeping in his own yard and was quickly stnmg up to a tree
across the street. Then his throat was cut and his body mutilated. The
troops interfered at this point and cut down the man, taking him in an ambu-
lance to the hospital, where he died the following morning. Donegan's only
offense seems to have been that he had had a white wife for more than thirty
years. He bore a good reputation, and the mob had found no reason for lynch-
ing him.
Abe Rajoner, who was supposed to have been the leader of the mob,
was charged with the murder of Donegan, but was released.
As an example of the disorder which occurred Friday evening, it is narrated
that Eugene W. Chafin, Prohibition candidate for the presidency, was dehvering
an address on the east side of the public square. A Negro pursued by the mob
ran toward the speaker's stand from Fifth and Washington streets, where he
had been pulled from a street car. Two men helped him to the speaker's
stand, while Chafin at the front of the platform threatened to shoot into the
crowd. Although he had no revolver he made a motion toward his hip pocket.
During the mSlee before gaining the platform the Negro drew a knife from his
pocket and slashed several white men. When he had escaped from the rear
of the platform, missiles flew in the direction of Mr. Chafin, one of them hitting
him on the head.
Four men were rounded up who had been blacked up to resemble Negroes
and had been firing on soldiers during the night in an effort to substantiate
the assertion that the Negroes did not welcome the soldiers.
Simday was quiet. No effort was made to reorganize the mob. The
whole city was as if imder martial law. The saloons were shut and every place
of business was closed at 9:00 p.m.
The people who took part in the mob violence had no grievances against
the Negroes. They were hoodlums and imderworld folk. Many of the
hoodlums, according to one observer, were less than twenty years old.
During the rioting four white men were killed. They were: Louis Johnson,
of 1208 East Reynolds Street, whose body was found at the foot of the stairs
leading to the barroom in Loper's restaurant. He was shot through the
abdomen; John Colwell, of 1517 Matheny Street, who died at St. John's
Hospital; J. W. Scott, of 125 East Adams Street, who was shot in the lungs;
Frank Delmore, who was killed by a stray bullet.
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 71
Seventy-nine persons were injured. The property destroyed included
Loper's restaurant and automobile, Scott Burton's barber shop, the Delmonico
saloon, and one block of houses between Tenth and Eleventh streets, which were
burned, with all their contents. Scores of families were left destitute. Many
Negroes were severely beaten before they were able to escape from the district.
Numbers of these homeless colored people swarmed to neighboring towns and
to Chicago. Three thousand of them were concentrated at Camp Lincoln,
the National Guard camp grounds. Some of the refugees were cared for at
the arsenal.
Current comment concerning the riots suggested political corruption and
laxity of law enforcement as important underlying causes of the riots. An as-
sistant state's attorney in Springfield charged that saloons had long been vio-
lating the law, and that the law was not generally enforced as it ought to be. He
cited these conditions as responsible in large measure for the rioting and mur-
ders. Pastors in their sermons on the riot focused attention on the way in which
vicious elements were permitted to flout the law with impunity. This comment
came so generally and insistently from those conversant with the situation
that the Chicago Daily News was led to remark editorially upon the responsi-
bility of the public authorities of Springfield. It said:
Vice and other forms of law breaking have been given wide latitude here. The
notoriety of Springfield's evil resorts has been widespread.
A mob which murders, bums and loots, is a highly undesirable substitute even
for a complacent city administration. It is a logical result, however, of long temporiz-
ing with vice and harboring of the vicious. When a mob begins to shoot and hang,
to destroy and pillage, there is instant recognition on the part of responsible persons
of the beauty of law enforcement and of general orderliness.
On the Sunday following the riots some Springfield saloon-keepers took
advantage of the fact that large crowds of sight-seers had come to town to
open their places, in violation of the order by Mayor Reece to remain closed.
Some of them were arrested for defiance of the mayor's proclamation to remain
closed until order had been restored.
By Monday or Tuesday order was pretty well restored in Springfield.
Some of the National Guard troops were kept on duty for several days. Almost
100 arrests were made, and a special grand jury returned more than fifty
indictments.
III. East St. Louis Riots
May 28 and July 2, 1917
Following a period of bitter racial feeling, frequently marked by open
friction, a clash between whites and Negroes in East St. Louis, Illinois, occurred
on May 28, 1917, in which, following rumors that a white man had been killed
by Negroes, a number of Negroes were beaten by a mob of white men. This
outbreak was the forerunner of a much more serious riot on July 2, in which
72 THE ISTEGRO IN CHICAGO
at least thirty-nine Negroes and eight white people were killed, much property
was destroyed by fire, and the local authorities proved so ineffective and
demoralized that the state militia was required to restore order. A Congres-
sional Committee investigated the facts of the riot and the underlying condi-
tions, which included industrial disturbances and shameful corruption in
local government.^
The coroner of St. Clair County in which East St. Louis is situated, held
thirty-eight inquests, as a result of which it was found that twenty-six of these
deaths had been due to gun-shot wounds, four to drowning, four to bums,
two to fractured skulls, one to hemorrhage of the brain, and one to pneumonia
after a fracture of the thyroid cartilage. Hundreds of persons were estimated
to have been more or less seriously injured, seventy having been treated in St.
Mary's Hospital. It has been impossible to get an accxirate accounting of the
deaths and injiuries. One man who had taken a deep interest in the situation es-
timated that from 200 to 300 Negroes were killed.
About 200 people were arrested. Some of these were released, some were
charged with rioting and conspiracy, and others with arson. Two white women
were tried for conspiracy and rioting, and fined $50.00. Ten Negroes were
convicted of rioting and murder. Indictments of 104 white persons grew out
of the immediate activities of the rioters. Three policemen were among those
indicted for murder in connection with firing upon Negro bystanders. In
this same group of assailants were seven soldiers who were court-martialed.
No finding in their cases has been announced. Three white men were indicted
for murder in connection with a raid upon a street-car load of Negro passengers
in which a father and son were killed, a mother was wounded severely, and a
little daughter escaped. Twenty-sis men, two of them Negroes, were indicted
for arson.
The effort to bring the guilty to justice was commented upon and sum-
marized by this Congressional Committee as follows :
Assistant Attorney General Middlekauf had active charge of the prosecutions
growing out of the riot, and he showed neither fear nor favor. Capable, determined,
and courageous, he allowed neither poHtical influence nor personal appeals to swerve
him from the strict line of duty.
As a result of these prosecutions by the attomey general's office 11 Negroes and
8 white men are in the State penitentiary, 2 additional white men have been sentenced
to prison terms, 14 white men have been given jail sentences, 27 white men, including
the former night chief of police and three policemen, have pleaded guilty to rioting
and have been punished.
' This statement is based mainly upon the report of this special committee appointed
by Congress to investigate the East St. Louis riots and upon the stenographic report of the
testunony taken by it. This testimony, comprising 6,000 tjrpewritten pages, was placed at
the disposal of the Commission through the courtesy of the chairman of the Committee,
Representative Ben Johnson, of Kentucky, and the interest and co-operation of Representative
James R. Mann, of Illinois.
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 73
These convictions were obtained in the face of organized, determined effort ,
backed with abundant funds, to head off the prosecutions and convictions. In the
case of Mayor Mollman there seems to have been an open, paid advertising campaign
to slander and intimidate the attorney general.
The burned area of the city was on Fifth Street, Broadway, Walnut Street,
Eighth Street, Eleventh Street and Bond Avenue, as well as "the Flats" on
Seventh Street, between Division and Missouri avenues. This latter area
was that occupied by Negroes. There were 312 buildings and forty-four
railroad cars totally or partially destroyed, with a total loss of $393,600.
The riots in East St. Louis may be traced, more or less directly, to a
number of causes, the influence of each being apparent.
Without doubt conditions resulting from the migration of a large number
of Negroes from the South, a movement which was more or less general at
that time, account in large measure for the riots, but also involved in it aU
are the facts that there had been industrial friction, and that the city was
flagrantly misgoverned.
The Congressional Committee observed an effort to shift the blame from
one element to another. The labor interests sought to place responsibility
for the riots upon the employers, who, they said, had brought great niunbers
of Negroes to East St. Louis in order that they might more readily dominate
the employment situation. The employers, on the other hand, thought the
blame rested upon the city and county administration because of laxity in law
enforcement, exploitation of Negroes for political purposes, and all sorts of
political corruption, including the "protection" of vice and crime. The
political ring sought to dodge responsibflity by emphasizing economic and
industrial causes of the outbreak.
Whatever may have been the conditions resulting from the influx of
Negroes, they were undoubtedly actuated by a desire to improve their condi-
tion. Some 10,000 or 12,000 Negroes had come to St. Clair County from the
South during the winter of 1916-17. During the year and a half preceding
the riot, the number of such migrants was estimated at 18,000, although it
was reported that many had returned during the winter of 1 916-17, because
of the unaccustomed cold climate. It is certaia that this influx severely
taxed the housing accommodations of East St. Louis, which were of the insani-
tary and inadequate nature that so often characterizes urban districts in which
the Negroes find that they must live. The report of the Congressional Com-
mittee on this point says:
It is a lamentable fact that the employers of labor paid too little heed to the com-
fort or welfare of their men. They saw them crowded into wretched cabins without
water or any of the conveniences of Ufe, their wives and children condemned to live in
the disreputable quarters of the town, and made no effort to lift them out of the mire.
The Negroes gravitated to the insanitary sections, existed in the squalor of filthy
cabins and made no complaint, but the white workmen had a higher outlook, and
74 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
failure to provide them with better homes added to their bitter dissatisfaction with
the burdens placed upon them by having to compete with black labor.
It is likewise in evidence that special inducements were offered to the
southern Negroes to come to East St. Louis, as well as to other industrial
centers in the North. Advertisements were placed in southern newspapers,
offering employment at wages far in excess of those paid in the South. Low
railroad rates were offered, and in some instances during this general migration
the railroads are said to have transported Negroes free in order that they might
be employed by the railroads. Failures of crops in the South, floods and ill
treatment of Negroes there, coupled with the hope that they would find
fairer treatment in the North, as well as better wages and living conditions,
were the direct causes of migration. After this had become fairly general
it was further stimulated by Negroes who had come North, and who wrote
home painting northern conditions in glowing colors.
From the industrial point of view it should be noted that in the summer
of 1916 there had been a strike of 4,000 white men in the packing-plants of
East St. Louis. It was asserted that Negroes were used in these plants as
strike breakers. A report on the Negro migration by the United States
Department of Labor states that when the strike was ended Negroes were still
employed, and some of the white men lost their positions. It says fxirther:
"The white leaders imdoubtedly realized that the effectiveness of striking was
materially lessened by this importation of black workers."
Furthermore, it is stated in the report of the Congressional Committee
that the Aluminum Ore Company, during a strike, brought hundreds of Negroes
to the city as strike breakers in order to defeat organized labor, "a precedent
which aroused intense hatred and antagonism, and caused cotmtless tragedies
as its aftermath. The feeling of resentment grew with each succeeding day.
White men walked the streets in idleness and their families suffered for food
and warmth and clothes, while their places as laborers were taken by strange
Negroes who were compelled to live in hovels and who were used to keep
down wages."
In May, 1917, a strike followed demands which had been made upon the
Aluminum Ore Company by the "Aluminum Ore Employees' Protective
Association." These related to alleged injustices and discriminations said
to have been practiced against the employees. The company failed to comply
with these demands, and a thousand white workers struck.
Closely related to this situation was a notice sent to the delegates of the
Central Trades Labor Union by the secretary of the Union, dated May 23,
which declared that the immigration of the southern Negro had reached a
point where "drastic action must be taken if we intend to work and to live
peaceably in this community." This notice declared that these men were
being used " to the detriment of our white citizens by some of the capitalists
and a few real estate owners." It called a meeting to present to the mayor
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 7S
and city council a demand for action to "retard this growing menace, and also
devise a way to get rid of a certain portion of those who are already here."
The notice read further: "This is not a protest against the Negro who has
long been a resident of East St. Louis, and is a law abiding citizen."
This meeting was held on May 28 in the auditorium of the city hall and
was attended not only by the labor men but also by a large number of other
persons. The Congressional Committee refers to one of the speakers at this
meeting as "an attorney of some ability and no character." The report of
the Committee says that he virtually advised the killing of Negroes and
burning of their homes. The report says further:
He was not authorized to speak for those who went there to protest against the
lawlessness which disgraced the city and the presence of thousands of Negroes who it
is claimed were taking the places of the white workmen, but his inflammatory speech
caused many of his hearers to rush into the street and to resort to acts of violence
He was in full sympathy with the action of the mob. They followed his advice and
the scenes of murder and arson that ensued were the logical result of his utterances.
That night. May 28, following the meeting, a crowd of white people
assembled in front of the police station and clamored for Negro prisoners.
A rumor circulated through the crowd that a white man had just been killed
by Negroes, and parts of the crowd left, forming a mob which severely beat
a number of Negroes whom it met. The situation was so serious that the mayor
called for troops. The trouble subsided, however. It is important to note
that from this time until the riot of July 1-2, no effort was made to strengthen
the police force nor were any other steps taken to control the situation.
In connection with the industrial phase of the situation, it should be
remembered that the war had cut off the normal supply of foreign labor, and
that not a few white workers had left East St. Louis for other industrial centers.
Most of the Negro migrants were vmskiUed workers, and their competition
was, therefore, with the unskilled white workers. One witness before the
Congressional Committee expressed the view that the labor shortage in East
St. Louis prior to the riot certainly did not justify the great influx of Negroes,
but it is of record that most of the newcomers got profitable employment in
unskilled occupations.
The employers were fighting unions of any sort, whether of whites or
Negroes. Unions were seeking membership of Negroes as well as whites in
the hope that the use of Negroes as strike breakers might be prevented.
Whether union men or not, the white workers resented the influx of Negro
workers who might take their jobs. The inevitable consequence was friction
between whites and Negroes.
The Congressional Committee laid great stress upon corrupt politics as
the leading cause of the riots of July 2. It disclosed an almost unbelievable
combination of shameless corruption, tolerance of vice and crune, maladminis-
tration, and debauchery of the courts. The report says that East St. Louis
76 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
for many years was a plague spot, harboring within its borders "every offense
in the calendar of crime" and committing openly "every lapse in morals and
public decency." Politicians looted its treasury, gave away valuable fran-
chises, and elected plunderers to high office. Graft, collusion with crime and
vice, and desecration of office were openly and deliberately practiced. Crimi-
nals were attracted and welcomed, and the good people of the community
were powerless. Owners of large corporations and manufacturers pitted white
against black labor, giving no thought to their thousands of workmen living
in hovels, the victims of "poverty and disease, of long hours and incessant
labor."
The mayor, continues the report, was a tool of dishonest politicians, the
electorate was "debauched," the police were a conscienceless bunch of grafters,
and the revenue of the city was largely derived from saloons and dens of vice.
Several officials and politicians of high standing were singled out by the
Committee for especial condemnation as the "brains of the city's corruption."
A great deal of the city's crime and vice was concentrated in what is known
as "Black Valley." This was the section in which the Negroes lived, but
much of the vice and crime was promoted and practiced by vicious whites.
There was much mixing of whites and Negroes in the vilest practices.
Similar conditions existed in the town of Brooklyn near by, with about
3,000 people, of whom only about fifty were white. Its dens of iniquity were
notorious and were the resort of many white people. So openly operated
were these resorts that the Congressional Committee reported that in the
Brookl)^ high school "24 out of 25 girls who were in the graduatrag class
went to the bad in the saloons and dance halls and failed to receive their
diplomas."
Not only were conditions of this sort demoralizing and degrading for the
decent Negroes, but the sanitary conditions were likewise extremely bad.
Some of the houses in the Negro districts had not been painted for fifteen
years and were in a state of great disrepair. Their setting consisted largely
of pools of stagnant water and beds of weeds. At one period during the
migration Negroes were coming in so fast that even these miserable housing
conditions were inadequate, and some of them were forced to live in sheds.
In one instance sixty-nine newcomers were foxmd living in one small house.
Whenever houses were vacated by white people and rented to Negroes, the
rental price was largely increased, sometimes doubled.
After reviewing the corruption in East St. Louis, the report of the Congres-
sional Committee discussed the riot. It described the condition of affairs
on the night of July i, 19 17, when the second and most serious outbreak
occurred. An automobile (some witnesses said two) went through the Negro
section of the city, its occupants firing promiscuously into homes. This aroused
fierce resentment among the Negroes, who organized for defense and armed
themselves with guns. The ringing of the church beU, a prearranged signal
OTHER OUTBREAKS IN ILLINOIS 77
for assembling, drew a crowd of them, and they marched through the streets
ready to avenge the attack. A second automobile filled with white men
crossed their path. The Negroes cursed them, commanded them to drive on,
and fired a volley into the machine. The occupants, however, were not the
rioters but policemen and reporters. One policeman was killed and another
was so seriously wounded that he died later.
Thousands viewed the riddled car standing before police headquarters.
The early editions of the newspapers gave full accounts of the tragedy, and
on July 2 the rioting began. Negro mobs shot white men, and white men
and boys, girls and women, began to attack every Negro in sight. News
spread rapidly and, as excitement increased, unimaginable depredations and
horrible tortures were committed and viewed with "placid unconcern" by
hundreds. Negro men were stabbed, clubbed, and hanged from telephone
poles. Their homes were burned. Women and children were not spared.
An instance is given of a Negro child two years old which was shot and thrown
into a doorway of a burning building.
On the night of July i, Mayor MoUman telephoned to the Adjutant
General of Illinois saying that the police were no longer able to handle the
situation and requesting that the militia be sent. Both the police and the
militia are severely censured by the Congressional report for gross failure to
do their duty. The police, says the report, could have quelled the riot instantly,
but instead they either "fled into the safety of cowardly seclusion or listlessly
watched the depredations of the mob, passively and in many instances actively
sharing in the work."
In all, five companies of the Illinois National Guard were sent to East
St. Louis. Some of them arrived on the morning of July 2, the first at
8:40 A.M. These forces were in command of Colonel S. O. Tripp. Concern-
ing the conduct of the militia, the Congressional Committee reported in strong
terms, singling out Colonel Tripp for especial condemnation. It said that he
was a hindrance instead of a help to the troops; that "he was ignorant of
his duties, blind to his responsibilities and deaf to every intelligent appeal
that was made to him."
The troops, in the estimation of the Committee, were poorly officered
and in only a few cases did their duty. The report states that " they seemed
moved by the same spirit of indifference or cowardice that marked the conduct
of the police force. As a rule they fraternized with the mob, joked with them
and made no serious effort to restrain them."
Many instances are given of active participation and encouragement of
the mob in its murders, arson, and general destruction.
The only redeeming feature of the activities of the militia, according to
the Congressional Committee, was " the conduct, bravery, and skill of the officer
second in command, whose promptness and determination prevented the mob
from committing many more atrocities."
78 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
By eight o'clock of the evening of July 2 there were seventeen officers and
270 men on duty, and by July 4 the force had increased to thirty-seven officers
and 1,411 men. On the evening of July 2 the fury of the mob had spent itseK,
and the riot subsided.
The behavior of the troops was condemned not only by the Congressional
Committee but by citizens generally, and a special inquiry was made into their
conduct by the Military and Naval Department of the State of lUiaois.
Witnesses to dereliction on duty on the part of the soldiers were examined
and commanding officers of troops were asked to testify and explain specific
acts of violence and neglect of duty. In all seventy-nine persons were examined.
Although the charges against the soldiers in a large number of cases were serious
and sufficient to warrant the criticism which they received, identification of
individuals guUty of these acts was difficult. This probably accounts for
the fact that only seven court-martials resulted from the inquiry. The com-
manding officer, though severely censured by the Congressional Committee,
was exonerated by this inquiry.
CHAPTER III
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH
I. INTRODUCTION
During the period 1916-18 approximately a half-million Negroes suddenly-
moved from southern to northern states. This movement, however, was not
without a precedent. A similar migration occurred in 1879, when Negroes
moved from Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, and North
Carolina to Kansas. The origin of this earUer movement, its causes, and
manner resemble in many respects the one which has so recently attracted
pubHc attention.
The migration of 1916-18 cannot be separated completely from the steady,
though inconspicuous, exodus from southern to northern states that has been in
progress since 1 860, or, in fact, since the operation of the " underground railway."
In 1900 there were 911,025 Negroes hving in the North, 10.3 per cent of the
total Negro population, which was then 8,883,994. Census figures for the
period 1900-1910 show a net loss for southern states east of the Mississippi
of 595,703 Negroes. Of this number 366,880 are found in northern states.
ReUable estimates for the last decade place the increase of northern Negro
population around 500,000.
The 1910-20 increase of the Negro population of Chicago was from 44,103
to 109,594, or 148.5 per cent, with a corresponding increase in the white
population of 21 per cent, including foreign immigration. According to the
Census Bureau method of estimating natural increase of population, the Negro
population of Chicago unaffected by the migration would be 58,056 in 1920,
and the increase by migration alone would be 51,538.
The relative 1910-20 increases in white and Negro population in typical
industrial cities of the Middle West, given in Table II, illustrate the effect of
the migration of southern Negroes.
The migration to Chicago. — Within a period of eighteen months in 1917-18
more than 50,000 Negroes came to Chicago according to an estimate based
on averages taken from actual count of daUy arrivals. AU of those who came,
however, did not stay. Chicago was a re-routing point, and many immi-
grants went on to nearby cities and towns. During the heaviest period,
for example, a Detroit social agency reported that hundreds of Negroes applying
there for work stated that they were from Chicago. The tendency appears
to have been to reach those fields offering the highest present wages and
permanent prospects.
79
8o
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
TABLE II
Negroes
Percentage
of Negro
Increase,
1910-20
Percentage
of White
igio
1920
Increase,
igio-20
Cincinnati, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Fort Wayne, Ind
Canton, Ohio
Gary, Ind
19,639
4,842
1,877
572
291
383
5,741
44,103
29,636
9,029
5,690
1,476
^,349
5,299
41,532
109,594
50.9
86.5
203.1
158
363.6
1,283.6
623.4
148. 5
8.0
28.0
42. 5
34.3
71.7
205.1
Detroit, Mich
Chicago, lU
106.9
21.0
II. CAUSES OF THE MIGRATION
A series of circumstances acting together in an unusual combination both
provoked and made possible the migration of Negroes from the South on a
large scale. The causes of the movement faU into definite divisions, even
as stated by the migrants themselves. For example, one of the most frequent
causes mentioned by southern Negroes for their change of home is the treatment
accorded them in the South. Yet this treatment of which they complain
has been practiced since their emancipation, and fifty years afterward more
than nine-tenths of the Negro population of the United States stiU remained
in the South. "Higher wages" was also cormnonly stated as a cause of the
movement, yet thousands came to the North and to Chicago who in the South
had been earning more in their professions and even in skilled occupations
than they expected to receive in the North. These causes then divide into
two main classes: (i) economic causes, (2) sentimental causes. Each has a
bearing on both North and South. The following statements are based on
reports prepared by trustworthy agencies during the migration, on letters and
statements from migrants, Negroes and whites Uving in the South and the
North, and on family history obtained by the Commission's investigators.
I. ECONOMIC CAUSES OE THE MIGRATION
A. THE SOUIH
Low wages. — Wages of Negroes in the South varied from 75 cents a day
on the farms to $1.75 a day in certain city jobs, in the period just preceding
1914. The rise in Uving costs which followed the outbreak of the war out-
stripped the rise in wages. In Alabama the price paid for day labor in the
twenty-one "black belt" counties averaged 50 and 60 cents a day. It ranged
from 40 cents, as a minimum, to 75 cents, and, in a few instances, $1.00
was a maximum for able-bodied mak farm hands.'
A Negro minister, writing in Jthe Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, said:
The Negro farm hand gets for his compensation hardly more than the mule he
plows; that is, his board and shelter. Some mules fare better than Negroes. This,
• Negro migration in 1916-17, U.S. Department of Labor Report, p. 67.
TYPICAL PLANTATION HOMES IN THE SOUTH OF MIGRANTS TO CHICAGO
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 8i
too, in spite of the fact that the money received for farm products has advanced
more than loo per cent. The laborer has not shared correspondingly in this advance.
High rents and low wages have driven the Negro ofi the farms. They have no
encouragement to work. Only here and there you will find a tenant who is getting
a square deal and the proper encouragement.
A white man, writing in the same paper, said:
There is an article in today's Advertiser headed "Exodus of the Negroes to Be
Probed." Why hunt for a cause when it's plain as the noonday sun the Negro is
leaving this country for higher wages ? He doesn't want to leave here but he knows
if he stays here he will starve. They have made no crops, they have nothing to eat,
no clothes, no shoes, and they can't get any work to do, and they are leaving just as
fast as they can get away If the Negro race could get work at 50 cents per
day he would stay here. He don't want to go. He is easily satisfied and wiU Uve
on half rations and will never complain.
The Atlanta Independent, white, said:
If our white neighbors will treat the Negro kindly, recognizing his rights as a
man, advance his wages in proportion as the cost of hving advances, he will need
no ordinance nor legislation to keep the Negro here. The South is his natural home.
He prefers to be here, he loves its traditions, its ideals and its people. But he cannot
stay here and starve
When meat was 15 cents a pound and flour $8 a barrel, the Negro received from
$4 to $8 a week. Now meat is 30 cents a pound and flour |i6 a barrel, and the Negro
is receiving the same wages. He cannot live on this and the white man cannot expect
him to Uve in the South and five on the starvation wages he is paying him, when the
fields and the factories in the North are offering him living wages.
The boll weevil. — ^In 1915 and 1916 the boll weevil cotton pest so ravaged
sections of the South that thousands of farmers were almost ruined. Cotton
crops were lost, and the farmers were forced to change from cotton to food
products. The growing of cotton requires about thirty times as many ' ' hands ' '
as food products. As a result many Negroes were thrown out of employment.
The damage wrought by the boll weevil was augmented by destructive storms
and floods, which not only affected crops but made the living conditions of
Negroes more miserable.
Loch of capital. — The "credit system" is a very convenient and common
practice in many parts of the South. Money is borrowed for upkeep until
the selling season, when it is repaid in one lump sum. The succession of short
crops and! the destruction due to the boll weevil and storms occasioned heavy
demands for capital to carry labor through the fall and early winter until a
new crop could be started. There was a shortage of capital, and as a result
there was little opportunity for work. During this period many white persons
migrated from sections of the South most seriously affected.
" Unsatisfactory" living conditions. — ^The plantation cabins and segregated
sections in cities where municipal laxity made home surroundings undesirable
have been stated as another contributing cause of the movement.
82
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Lack of school facilities. — The desire to place their children in good schools
was a reason often' given by migrants with famihes for leaving the South.
School facihties are described as lamentably poor even by southern whites.
Perhaps the most thorough statement of these conditions is given in a Study
of Negro Education by Thomas Jesse Jones, made under the direction of the
federal Bureau of Education, and comparing provisions for white and Negro
children in fifteen southern states and the District of Columbia. He states:
In the South they [Negroes] form 29.8 per cent of the total population, the
proportion in Mississippi and South Carolina being over 55 per cent and ranging in
the "black belt" counties from 50 to 90 per cent of the total population. Almost
3,000,000 are engaged in agricultural pursuits. They form 40.4 per cent of all persons
engaged in these pursuits in the Southern States.
Though the United States census shows a decrease in illiteracy, there are still
about 2,225,000 Negroes illiterate in the South, or over 33 per cent of the Negro
population ten years of age and over.
TABLE III
Total population
Population six to fourteen years of age . . . .
Population six to fourteen*
Teachers' salaries in public schools
Teachers' salaries per child six to fourteen .
Per cent of illiteracy
Per cent rural
White
23,682,352
4,889,762
3,552,431
$36,649,827
$10.32
7-7
76.9
Colored
8,906,879
i!, 023, 108
1,852,181
$5,860,876
$2.89
33-3
78.8
* In i,oss counties.
In the fifteen states and the District of Columbia for which salaries by race
could be obtained, the pubUc school teachers received $42,510,431 in salaries. Of
this sum $36,649,827 was for the teachers of 3,552,431 white children and $5,860,876
for teachers of 1,852,181 colored children. On a per capita basis, this is $10.32 for
each white child and $2.89 for each colored child.
TABLE IV
County Groups, Percentage of Negroes
in the Population
White School
Population
Negro School
Population
Per Capita
for White
Per Capita
for Negro
974,289
1,008,372
1,132,999
364,990
40,003
45,039
215,744
709,259
661,329
207,900
$ 7.96
9-55
II. II
12.53
22.22
$7.23
S-SS
3.19
Counties 10 to 25 per cent
Counties 50 to 75 per cent
1.77
Counties 75 per cent and over
1.78
The supervisor of white elementary rural schools in one of the states recently
wrote concerning the Negro schools:
"I never visit one of these [Negro] schools without feeling that we are wasting
a large part of this money and are neglecting a great opportunity. The Negro school-
houses are miserable beyond all description. They are usually without comfort,
equipment, proper lighting, or sanitation. Nearly all of the Negroes of school age
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 83
in the district are crowded into these miserable structures during the short term
which the school runs. Most of the teachers are absolutely untrained and have been
given certificates by the county board, not because they have passed the examination,
but because it is necessary to have some kind of a Negro teacher. Among the Negro
rural schools which I have visited, I have found only one in which the highest class
knew the midtiplication table.''
A state superintendent writes:
"There has never been any serious attempt in this state to offer adequate educa-
tional facilities for the colored race. The average length of the term for the state
is only four months; practically all of the schools are taught in dilapidated churches,
which, of course, are not equipped with suitable desks, blackboards, and the other
essentials of a school; practically all of the teachers are incompetent, possessing
httle or no education and having had no professional training whatever, except a few
weeks obtained in the summer schools; the schools are generally overcrowded,
some of them having as many as 100 students to the teacher; no attempt is made to
do more than teach the children to read, write, and figure, and these subjects are
learned very imperfectly. There are six or eight industrial supervisors financed in
whole or in part by the Jeanes Fund; most of these teachers are stimulating the
Negro schools to do very good work upon the practical things of Ufe. A few wide-
awake Negro teachers not connected with the Jeanes Fund are doing the same thing.
It can probably be truthfully said that the Negro schools are gradually improving,
but they are still just about as poor and inadequate as they can be."
Commenting on the cause of the migration, the Atlanta Constitution, a
prominent southern white paper, says:
While mob violence and the falsehood which has been built upon that foundation
constitutes, perhaps, a strong factor in the migration of the Negroes, there is scarcely
a doubt that the educational feature enters into it. Negroes induced to go to the
North undoubtedly beUeve they can secure better educational facilities there for their
children, whether they really succeed in getting them or not.
Georgia, as well as other southern states, is undoubtedly behind in the matter
of Negro education, unfair in the matter of facilities, in the quality of teachers and
instructors, and in the pay of those expected to impart proper instruction to Negro
children.
We have proceeded upon the theory that education would, in his own mind, at
least, carry the Negro beyond his sphere; that it would give him higher ideas of himself
and make of him a poorer and less S9.tisfactory workman. That is nonsense
b: the north
The cessation of immigration. — Prior to the war the yearly immigration to
the United States equaled approximately the total Negro population of the
North. Foreign labor filled the unskilled labor field, and Negroes were held
closely in domestic and personal-service work. The cessation of immigration
and the return of thousands of aliens to their mother-country, together with
the. opening of new industries and the extension of old ones, created a much
greater demand for American labor. Employers looked to the South for
Negroes and advertised for them.
84 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
High wa^e5.— Wages for unskilled work in the North in 1916 and 1917
ranged from I3.00 to $8.00 a day. There were shorter hours of work and
opportunity for overtime and bonuses.
Living conditions. — Houses available for Negroes in the North, though
by northern standards classed as unsanitary and unfit for habitation, afforded
greater comforts than the rude cabins of the plantation. For those who had
owned homes in the South there was the opportunity of selling them and
applying the money to payment for a good home in the North.
Identical school privileges. — Co-education of whites and Negroes in northern
schools made possible a higher grade of instruction for the children of migrants.'
2. SENTIMENTAL CAUSES OF THE MIGRATION
The causes classed as sentimental include those which have reference to
the feelings of Negroes concerning their surroundings in the South and their
reactions to the social systems and practices of certain sections of the South.
Frequently these causes were given as the source of an old discontent among
Negroes concerning the South. Frequently they took prominence over
economic causes, and they were held for the most part by a fairly high class
of Negroes. These causes are in part as follows:
Lack of protection from mob violence. — ^Between 1885 and 1918, 2,881
Negroes were lynched in the United States, more than 85 per cent of these
lynchings occurring in the South. In 1917, 2,500 Negroes were driven by
force out of Dawson and Forsythe counties, Georgia."
The Chicago Urban League reported that numbers of migrants from towns
where lynchings had occurred registered for jobs in Chicago very shortly
after lynchings. Concerning mob violence and general insecurity both whites
and Negroes living in the South have had much to say. Their statements
at the time of the migration are here quoted.
From the Atlanta Constitution (white), November 24, 1916:
Current dispatches from Albany, Georgia, in the center of the section apparently
most affected, and where efforts are being made to stop the exodus by spreading
correct information among the Negroes, say:
The heaviest migration of Negroes has been from those counties in which there
have been the worst outbreaks against Negroes. It is developed by investigation that
where there have been lynchings, the Negroes have been most eager to believe what
the emigration agents have told them of plots for the removal or extermination of the
race. Comparatively few Negroes have left Dougherty County, which is considered
significant in view of the fact that this is one of the counties in southwest Georgia
in which a lynching has never occurred.
These statements are most significant. Mob law as we have known in Georgia
has furnished emigration agents with all the leverage they want; it is a foundation
upon which it is easy to build with a well concocted lie or two, and they have not
been slow to take advantage of it.
" See "Contacts in Public Schools." ' Colored Missions, January, 1921.
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 85
This loss of her best labor is another penalty Georgia is paying for her indifference
and inactivity in suppressing mob law.
From the Southwestern Christian Advocate (Negro), April 26, 1917:
But why do they [the Negroes] go? We give a concrete answer: some months
ago Anthony Crawford, a highly respectable, honest and industrious Negro, with a
good farm and holdings estimated to be worth $300,000, was lynched in Abbeville,
South Carolina. He was guilty of no crime. He would not be cheated out of his
cotton. That was insolence. He must be taught a lesson. When the mob went
for him he defended himself. They overpowered him and brutally Ijmched him.
This murder was without excuse and was condemned in no uncertain words by the
Governor, other high officials and the press in general of South Carolina. Officials
pledged that the lynchers would be punished. The case went to the grand jury.
Mr. Crawford was lynched in the daytime and dragged through the streets by
unmasked men. The names of the leaders were supposed to have been known, and
yet the grand jury, imder oath, says that it could not find sufficient evidence to warrant
an indictment
Is any one surprised that Negroes are leaving South Carolina by the thousands ?
The wonder is that any of them remain. They will suffer in the North. Some of
them will die. But Anthony Crawford did not get a chance to die in Abbeville,
South Carolina. He was shamefully miurdered. Any place would be paradise
compared with some sections of the South where the Negroes receive such maltreat-
ment.
From the Savannah (Georgia) Morning News (white), January 3, 1917:
Another cause is the feeling of insecurity. The lack of legal protection in the
country is a constant nightmare to the colored people who are trying to accumulate
a comfortable little home and farm. There is scarcely a Negro mother in the country
who does not live in dread and fear that her husband or son may come in unfriendly
contact with some white person as to bring the Ijmchers or the arresting officers to
her door which may result in the wiping out of her entire family. It must be acknowl-
edged that this is a sad condition
The Southern white man ought to be wilh'ng to give the Negro a man's chance
without regard to his race or color, give him at least the same protection of law given
to anyone else. If he will not do this, the Negro must seek those North or West,
who wiU give him better wages and better treatment. I hope, however, that this
will not be necessary.
Injustice in the courts. — An excerpt from one of the newspapers of that
period illustrates the basis of this cause:
While our very solvency is being sucked out from underneath we go out about
affairs as usual — our police officers raid poolrooms for "loafing Negroes," bring in
twelve, keep them in the barracks all night, and next morning find that many of them
have steady, regular jobs, valuable assets to their white employers, suddenly left and
gone to Cleveland, "where they don't arrest fifty niggers for what three of 'em done"
[Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser (white), September 2r, 1916].
Inferior transporation facilities. — This refers to "Jim Crow cars," a par-
titioned section of one railway car, usually the baggage car, and partitioned
86 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
sections of railway waiting-rooms, poorly kept, bearing signs, "For colored
only." This dissatisfaction is expressed in part in the following comment
of a Negro presiding elder, writing in the Macon (Georgia) Ledger, a white
paper:
The petty offenses, which you mention, are far more numerous than you are
aware of, besides other unjust treatments enacted daUy on the streets, street cars
and trains. Our women are inhumanly treated by some conductors, both on the street
cars and trains. White men are often found in compartments for Negroes smoking
and if anything is said against it they who speak are insulted, or the car is purposely
fiUed with big puffs of smoke and the conductor's reply is, "He'U quit to-rectly."
Recently a white man entered a trailer for Negroes with two Uttle dogs. One of the
dogs went between the seats and crouched by a woman; she pushed him from her
and the white man took both dogs and set them aside her and she was forced to ride
with them. This is one of the many, many acts of injustice which often result in a
row for which the Negro has to pay the penalty. These things are driving the Negro
from the South.
Other causes stated are (a) the deprivation of the right to vote, (6) the
"rough-handed" and unfair competition of "poor whites," (c) persecution by
petty officers of the law, and (d) the "persecution of the Press."
ni. BEGINNING AND SPREAD OF MIGRATION
The enormous proportions to which the exodus grew obscure its beginning.
Several experiments had been tried with southern labor in the Northeast,
particularly in the Connecticut tobacco fields and in Pennsylvania. In
Connecticut, Negro students from the southern schools had been employed
during summers with great success. Early in 1916, industries in Pennsylvania
imported many Negroes from Georgia and Florida. During July one railroad
company stated that it had brought to Pennsylvania more than 13,000 Negroes.
They wrote back for their friends and families, and from the points to which
they had been brought they spread out into new and "labor slack" territories.
Once begun, this means of recruiting labor was used by hard-pressed
industries in other sections of the North. The reports of high wages, of the
unexpected welcome of the North, and of unusually good treatment accorded
Negroes spread throughout the South from Georgia and Florida to Texas.
The stimuli of suggestion and hysteria gave the migration an almost
religious significance, and it became a mass movement. Letters, riomors,
Negro newspapers, gossip, and other forms of social control operated to add
volume and enthusiasm to the exodus. Songs and poems of the period charac-
terized the migration as the "Flight Out of Egypt, " "Bound for the Promised
Land," "Going into Canaan," "The Escape from Slavery," etc.
The first movement was from Southeast to Northeast, following main
lines of transportation. Soon, however, it became known that the Middle
West was similarly in need of men. Many industries advertised for southern
Negroes in Negro papers. The federal Department of Labor for a period was
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 87
instrumental in transporting Negroes from the South to relieve the labor
shortage in other sections of the country, but discontinued such efforts when
southern congressmen pointed out that the South's labor supply was being
depleted. It was brought out in the East St. Louis riot inquiry that plants
there had advertised in Texas newspapers for Negro laborers.
Chicago was the logical destination of Negroes from Mississippi, Arkansas,
Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas, because of the more direct railway lines, the
way in which the city had become known in these sections through its two
great mail-order houses, the Stock Yards, and the packing-plants with their
numerous storage houses scattered in various towns and cities of the South.
It was rtunored in these sections that the Stock Yards needed 50,000 men;
it was said that temporary housing was being provided by these hard-pressed
industries. Many Negroes came to the city on free transportation, but by far
the greater numbers paid their own fare. Club rates offered by the railroads
brought the fare within reach of many who ordinarily could not have brought
their famihes or even come themselves. The organization into clubs composed
of from ten to fifty persons from the same community had the effect, on the
one hand, of adding the stimulus of intimate persuasion to the movement, and,
on the other hand, of concentrating soUd groups in congested spots in Chicago.
A study of certain Negro periodicals shows a powerful influence on southern
Negroes already in a state of unsettlement over news of the "opening up of
the North."
The Chicago Defender became a "herald of glad tidings" to southern
Negroes. Several cities attempted to prevent its circulation among their
Negro population and confiscated the street- and store-sales supplies as fast
as they came. Negroes then reUed upon subscription copies deUvered through
the mails. There are reports of the clandestine circulation of copies of the
paper in bundles of merchandise. A correspondent of the Defender wrote:
"White people are paying more attention to the race in order to keep them in
the South, but the Chicago Defender has emblazoned upon their minds 'Bound
for the Promised Land.' "
In Gulf port, Mississippi, it was stated, a man was regarded "intelligent"
if he read the Defender, and in Laurel, Mississippi, it was said that old men
who had never known how to read, bought the paper simply because it was
regarded as precious.^
Articles and headlines carrying this special appeal which appeared in the
Defender are quoted:
Why Should the Negro Stay in the South?
west indians live north
It is true the South is nice and warm, and may I add, so is China, and we find
Chinamen living in the North, East, and West. So is Japan, but the Japanese are
liviag everywhere.
' Johnson, Migration to Chicago.
88 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
SCHOOL BOARDS BAD
While in Arkansas a member of the school board in one of the cities of that state
(and it is said it is the rule throughout the South that a Race woman teacher to hold
her school must be on friendly terms with some one of them) lived openly with a
Race woman, and the entire Race, men and women, were afraid to protest or stop
their children from going to school, because this school board member would get up
a mob and run them out of the state. They must stomach this treatment.
FROZEN DEATH BETTER
To die from the bite of frost is far more glorious than that of the mob. I beg
of you, my brothers, to leave that benighted land. You are free men. Show the world
that you wiU not let false leaders lead you. Your neck has been in the yoke. Will
you continue to keep it there because some "white folks Nigger" wants you to?
Leave to aU quarters of the globe. Get out of the South. Your being there in the
numbers you are gives the southern poUtician too strong a hold on your progress.
TURN DEAF EAR
Turn a deaf ear to everybody. You see they are not hfting their laws to help
you, are they ? Have they stopped their Jim Crow cars ? Can you buy a Pullman
sleeper where you wish ? Will they give you a square deal in court yet ? When a
girl is sent to prison, she becomes the mistress of the guards and others in authority,
and women prisoners are put on the streets to work, something they don't do to a
white woman. And your leaders will teU you the South is the best place for you.
Turn a deaf ear to the scoundrel, and let him stay. Above all, see to it that that
jmnping-jack preacher is left at the South, for he means you no good here at the North.
GOOD-BYE, DIXIE LAND
One of our dear southern friends informs an anxious pubUc that "the Negroes of
the North seem to fit very well into their occupations and locations, but the southern
Negro will never make a success in the North. He doesn't understand the methods
there, the people and the work are wholly unsuited to him. Give him a home in
the South where climatic conditions blend into his peculiar physical makeup, where
he is understood and can understand, and let him have a master and you have given
him the ideal home." There is the solution of the problem in a nutshell. This dear
friend thinks that under a master back of the sugar cane and cotton fields, we might
really be worth something to the world. How thoughtful to point out the way for
our stumbling feet.
Those who live in the North presumably always lived there, and, like Topsy,
they "just growed" in that section, so naturally fit well into their occupations.
There is such a diEEerence between the white man and the black man of the South;
the former can travel to the North Pole if he chooses without being affected, the latter,
"they say" will die of a million dread diseases if he dares to leave Dixie land, and yet
the thousands who have migrated North in the past year look as well and hearty
as they ever did. Something is wrong in our friend's calculations.
We hear again and again of our "peculiar physical makeup." Is there something
radically difierent about us that is not found in other people ? Why the constant
fear of Negro supremacy if the white brain is more active and intelligent than the
brain found in the colored man ? A good lawyer never fears a poor one in a court
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 89
battle — ^he knows that he has him bested from, the start. The fact that we have
made good wherever and whenever given an opportunity, we admit, is a little dis-
quieting, but it is a way we have, and is hard to get out of. Once upon a time we
permitted other people to think for us — today we are thinking and acting for ourselves,
with the result that our "friends" are getting alarmed at our progress. We'd like
to oblige these unselfish ( ?) souls and remain slaves in the South , but to other sections
of the country we have said, as the song goes: "I hear you calling me, " and boarded
the train singing, "Good-by to Dixie-Land."
News articles in the Defender kept alive the enthusiasm and fervor of the
exodus:
LEAVING FOR THE NORTH
Tampa, Fla., Jan. 19. — ^J. T. King, supposed to be a race leader, is using his
wits to get on the good side of the white people by calling a meeting to urge our
people not to migrate North. King has been termed a ' ' good nigger " by his pernicious
activity on the emigration question. Reports have been received here that all who
have gone North are at work and pleased with the splendid conditions in the North.
It is known here that in the North there is a scarcity of labor, mills and factories
are open to them. People are not paying any attention to King and are packing
and ready to travel North to the "promised land."
DETERMINED TO GO NORTH
Jackson, Miss., March 23. — ^Although the white police and sheriff and others
are using every effort to intimidate the citizens from going North, even Dr. Redmond's
speech was circulated around, this has not deterred our people from leaving. Many
have walked miles to take the train for the North. There is a determination to leave
and there is no hand save death to keep them from it.
THOMAS LIKES THE NORTH
J. H. Thomas, Birmingham, Ala., Brownsville Colony, has been here several
weeks and is very much pleased with the North. He is working at the Pullman
shops, making twice as much as he did at home. Mr. Thomas says the "exodus"
will be greater later on in the year, that he did not find four feet of snow or would
freeze to death. He hves at 346 East Thirty-fifth St.
LEAVING FOR THE EAST
HuntsviUe, Ala., Jan. 19. — 'Fifteen families, aU members of the Race, left here
today for Pittsburgh, Pa., where they will take positions as butlers, and maids,
getting sixty to seventy-five dollars per month, against fifteen and twenty paid here.
Most of them claim that they have letters from their friends who went early and made
good, saying that there was plenty of work, and this field of labor is short, owing to
the vast amount of men having gone to Europe and not returned.
they're leaving MEMPHIS IN DROVES
Some are coming on the passenger.
Some are coming on the freight.
Others wiU be found walking,
For none have time to wait.
go THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Other headlines read: "Thousands Leave Memphis"; "Still Planning
to Come North"; "Northbound Their Cry." These articles are especially
interesting for the impelling power of the suggestion of a great mass move-
ment.
Denunciation of the South: — ^The idea that the South is a bad place, unfit
for the habitation of Negroes, was "played up" and emphasized by the Defender.
Conditions most distasteful to Negroes were given first prominence. In this
it had a clear field, for the local southern Negro papers dared not make such
unrestrained utterances. Articles of this type appeared:
EXODUS TO START
Forest City, Ark., Feb. i6. — 'David B. Smith (white) is on trial for life for the
brutal murder of a member of the Race, W. H. Winford, who refused to be whipped
like others. This white maii had the habit of making his "slave" submit to this
sort of punishment and when Winford refused to stand for it, he was whipped to
death with a "black snake" whip. The trial of Smith is attracting very little atten-
tion. As a matter of fact, the white people here think nothing of it as the dead man
is a "nigger."
This very act, coupled with other recent outrages that have been heaped upon
our people, are causing thousands to leave, not waiting for the great spring movement
in May.
The Defender had a favorite columnist, W. Allison Sweeney. His specialty
was "breaking southerners and 'white folks' niggers on the wheel." One of
his articles in the issue of June 23, 1917, was captioned: "A Chicago 'Nigger'
Preacher, a 'Feeder,' of The 'Little Hells,' Springs up to Hinder Our Brethren
Coming North."
A passage from this article will illustrate the temper of his writings. Aroused
by what he calls a "white folks nigger," he remarks:
Such a creature has recently been called to my attention, and for the same
reason that an unchecked rat has been known to jeopardize the life of a great ship,
a mouse's nibble of a match to set a mansion aflame, I've concluded to carve a
"Slice of liver or two"
from that bellowing ass, who, at this very moment no doubt, somewhere in the South,
is going up and down the land, telling the natives why they should be content, as the
Tribune, puts it, to become "Russianized," to remain in that land — to them — of
blight; of murdered 'kin, deflowered ■wovaaxihood., wrecked homes, strangled ambitions,
make-believe schooh, rozimg "gun parties," midnight arrests, rj^ei virginity, trumped
up charges, lonely graves, where owls hoot, and where friends dare not go! Do you
wonder at the thousands leaving the land where every foot of ground marks a tragedy,
leaving the grave of their fathers and all that is dear, to seek their fortunes in the
North? And you who say that their going is to seek better wages are insulting
truth, dethroning reason, and consoling yourself with a groundless allegation.
Retaliation. — In answer to the warnings of the South against the rigors of
the northern winters, articles of this nature appeared:
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 91
FREEZING TO DEATH IN THE SOUTH
So much has been said through the white papers in the South about the members
of the race freezing to death in the North. They freeze to death down South when
they don't take care of themselves. There is no reason for any human staying in
the Southland on this bugaboo handed out by the white press, when the following
clippings are taken from the same journals:
AGED NEGRO FROZEN TO DEATH
Albany, Ga., Feb. 8. — ^Yesterday the dead body of Peter Crowder, an old Negro,
was found in an out-of-the-way spot where he had been frozen to death duriag the
recent cold snap [from the Macon (Georgia) Telegraph].
DIES FROM EXPOSURE
Spartanburg, Feb. 6. — Marshall Jackson, a Negro man, who lived on the farm of
J. T. Harris near CampobeUo Sunday night froze to death [from the South Carolina
State],
NEGRO FROZEN TO DEATH IN FIRELESS GRETNA HUT
Coldest weather of the last four years claimed a victim Friday night, when
Archie Williams, a Negro, was frozen to death in his bed in a little hut in the outskirts
of Gretna [from the New Orleans Item, dated Feb. 4th].
NEGRO WOMAN FROZEN TO DEATH MONDAY
Harriet Tolbert, an aged Negro woman, was frozen to death in her home at 18
Garibaldi Street early Monday morning during the severe cold [Atlanta (Ga.) Consti-
tution, dated Feb. 6].
If you can freeze to death in the North and be free, why freeze to death in the
South and be a slave, where your mother, sister, and daughter are raped and burned
at stake, where your father, brother and son are treated with contempt and hung to
a pole, riddled with bullets at the least mention that he does not like the way he has
been treated ?
Come North then, all of you folks, both good and bad. If you don't behave
yourself up here, the jails will certainly make you wish you had. For the hard working
man there is plenty of work — if you reaUy want it. The Defender says come.
Still in another mood:
DEED, BUT TOOK ONE WITH HIM
Alexandria, La., Sept. 29. — ^Joe Pace (white) a southern workman, who had a
way of bulldozing members of the Race employed by the Ehzabeth Lumber Company,
met his match here last Saturday night.
Pace got into one of his moods and kicked a fellow named Israel. Israel deter-
mined to get justice some way and knowing that the courts were only for white men
in this part of the country, he took a shot at Pace and his aim was good.
Another type of article appeared. In keeping with the concept of the
South as a bad place for Negroes, their escape from it under exceptional
circumstances was given unique attention. Thus, there were reported the
following kind of cases.
92 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Saved from the South
Lawyers Save Another from Being Taken South
Saved from the South
Charged with Murder, but His Release Is Secured by Habeas Corpus
New Scheme to Keep Race Men in Dixie Land
A piece of poetry which received widespread popularity appeared in the
Defender under the title "Bound for the Promise Land." Other published
poems expressing the same sentiment were: "Farewell, We're Good and (Jone";
"Northward Bound"; "The Land of Hope."
Five young men were arraigned before Judge E. Schwartz for reading poetry.
The police claim they were inciting riot in the city and over Georgia. Two of the men
were sent to Brown farm for thirty days, a place not fit for human beings. Tom
Amaca was arrested for having "Bound for the Promise Land," a poem published in
the Defender several months ago. J. N. Chislom and A. A. Walker were arrested
because they were said to be the instigators of the movement of the race to the North,
where work is plentiful and better treatment is given.
The "Great Northern Drive." — The setting Of definite dates was another
stimulus. The "Great Northern Drive" was scheduled to begin May 15,
1917. This date, or the week following, corresponds with the date of the
heaviest arrivals in the North, the period of greatest temporary congestion
and awakening of the North to the presence of the new arrivals. Letters to
the Chicago Defender and to social agencies in the North informed them of
many Negroes who were preparing to come in the " Great. Drive." The follow-
ing letter tells its own story:
April 24th, 1917
Mr. R. S. Abbot
Sir: I have been reading the Defender for one year or more and last February
I read about the Great Northern Drive to take place May isth on Thursday and
now I can hear so many people speaking of an excursion to the North on the isth
of May for I3.00. My husband is in the North already working, and he wants us
to come up in May, so I want to know if it is true about the excursion. I am getting
ready and oh so many others also, and we want to know is that true so we can be in
the Drive. So please answer at once. We are getting ready.
Yours,
Usually the dates set were for Wednesday and Saturday nights, following
pay days.
It is probably no exaggeration to say that the Defender's policy prompted
thousands of restless Negroes to venture North, where they were assured of
its protection and championship of their cause. Many migrants in Chicago
attribute their presence in the North to the Defender's encouraging pictures
of relief from conditions at home with which they became increasingly dis-
satisfied as they read.
A NEGRO FAMILY JUST ARRIVED IN CHICAGO FROM THE RURAL SOUTH
NEGRO CHURCH IN THE SOUTH
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 93
IV. THE AEHIVAL IN CHICAGO
At the time of the migration the great majority of Negroes in Chicago
lived in a limited area on the South Side, principally between Twenty-second
and Thirty-ninth streets, Wentworth Avenue and State Street, and in scattered
groups to Cottage Grove Avenue on the east. State Street was the main
thoroughfare. Prior to the influx of southern Negroes, many houses stood
vacant in the section west of State Street, from which Negroes had moved
when better houses became available east of State Street. Into these old and
frequently almost uninhabitable houses the first newcomers moved. Because
of its proximity to the old vice area this district had an added undesirabihty
for old Chicagoans. The newcomers, however, were unacquainted with its
reputation and had no hesitancy about moving in until better homes could
be secured. As the number of arrivals increased, a scarcity of houses followed,
creating a problem of acute congestion.
During the summer of 191 7 the Chicago Urban League made a canvass
of real estate dealers supplying houses for Negroes, and found that in a single
day there were 664 Negro appUcants for houses, and only fifty houses avail-
able. In some instances as many as ten persons were listed for a single house.
This condition did not continue long. There were counted thirty-six new neigh-
borhoods, formerly white, opening up to Negroes within three months.
At the same time rents increased from 5 to 30 and sometimes as much as
50 per cent. A more detailed study of living conditions among the early migrants
in Chicago was made by the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy.
The inquiry included seventy-five families of less than a year's residence.
In the group were sixty married couples, 128 children, eight women, nine
married men with families in the South. Of these migrants forty-five families
came from rural and thirty-two from urban localities. The greatest number,
twenty-nine, came from Alabama; twenty-five were from Mississippi, eleven
from Louisiana, five from Georgia, four from Arkansas, two from Tennessee,
and one from Florida. Forty-one of these seventy-five famiUes were each
living in one room. These rooms were rented by the week, thus making possible
an easy change of home at the first opportunity.
It was at this period that the greatest excitement over the "incoming
hordes of Negroes" prevailed.
A significant feature was the large mmiber of yoimg children found. The
age distribution of 128 children in these seventy-five famiUes was forty-seven
under seven years, forty-one between seven and fourteen years, and forty
over fourteen years.
Most of these children were of school age and had come from districts in
the South which provided few school facilities. The parents were unaccustomed
to the requirements of northern schools in matters of discipUne, attendance,
and scholarship. Considerable difficulty was experienced by teachers, parents,
and children in these first stages of adjustment.
i.
94
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
V. ADJUSTMENTS TO CHICAGO LIFE
Meeting actual conditions of life in Chicago brought its exaltations and
disillusiomnents to the migrants. These were reflected in the schools, public
amusement places, industry, and the street cars. The Chicago Urban League,
Negro churches, and Negro newspapers assumed the task of making the
migrants into "city folk." The increase in church membership indicates
prompt efforts to re-engage in community life and establish agreeable and
helpful associations. It also reflects the persistence of reUgious life among
the migrants. This increase is shown in Table V.
Adjustment to new conditions was taken up by the Urban League as its
principal work. Co-operating with the Travelers Aid Society, United Charities,
and other agencies of the city, it met the migrants at stations and, as far as
its f aciUties permitted, secured Uving quarters and jobs for them. The churches
took them into membership and attempted to make them feel at home. Negro
TABLE V
Increase in Membership dde-
ING Migration Period
Number
Percentage
700
5,543
2,425
1,800
95
650
351
SI
80
Olivet
South Park
1,872
St. Mark's
Hyde Park
131
800
Bethel
Walters
338
newspapers pubUshed instructions on dress and conduct and had great influence
in smoothing down improprieties of manner which were likely to provoke
criticism and intolerance in the city.
Individual experiences of the migrants in this period of adjustment were
often interesting. The Commission made a special effort to note these experi-
ences for the light they throw upon the general process. Much of the adjust-
ment was a double process, including the adjustment of rural southern Negroes
to northern urban conditions. It is to be remembered that over 70 per cent
of the Negro population of the South is rural. This means familiarity with
rural methods, simple machinery, and plain habits of living. Farmers and
plantation workers coming to Chicago had to learn new tasks. Skilled crafts-
men had to relearn their trades when they were thrown amid the highly
specialized processes of northern industries. Domestic servants went into
industry. Professional men who followed their clientele had to re-estabUsh
themselves in a new community. The small business men could not compete
with the Jewish merchants, who practically monopolized the trade of Negroes
near their residential areas, or with the "Loop" stores.
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH
95
Many Negroes sold their homes and brought their furniture with them.
Reinvesting in property frequently meant a loss; the furniture brought was
often found to be unsuited to the tiny apartments or large, abandoned dwelling-
houses they were able to rent or buy.
The change of home carried with it in many cases a change of status. The
leader in a small southern community, when he came to Chicago, was immedi-
ately absorbed into the struggling mass of unnoticed workers. School teachers,
male and female, whose positions in the South carried considerable prestige,
had to go to work in factories and plants because the disparity in educational
standards would not permit continuance of their profession in Chicago.
These illustrations in Table VI, taken from family histories, show how
adjustment led to inferior occupation.
TABLE VI
Occupation in South
Occupation on First Arrival
in Chicago
Occupation One or More
Years Later
Display man on furniture
Laborer
Laborer in factory
Stone mason
Laborer in coal yard
Laborer in Stock Yards
Proprietor of cafe
Laborer
Elevator man
Farmer
Laborer in Stock Yards
Laborer in Stock Yards
Coal miner
Porter in tailoring shop
Janitor
Proprietor of boarding-house
Laborer
Laborer in Stock Yards
Farmer
Factory worker
Factory worker
Barber
Painter
Janitor
Hotel waiter
Waiter
Porter in factory
Plasterer
Laborer in Stock Yards
Laborer in steel mill
Farmer
Hostler
Laborer in livery stable
Clergyman
Stationary fireman
Laborer in Stock Yards
Tinsmith
Waiter
Laborer
Farmer
Laborer in cement factory
Laborer in Stock Yards
Blacksmith
Barber
Janitor
Office boy
Porter
Laborer in Stock Yards
The following experiences of one or two famiUes from the many histories
gathered, while not enturely typical of all the migrants, contain features
common to all:
The Thomas family. — ^Mr. Thomas, his wife and two children, a girl nineteen
and a boy seventeen, came to Chicago from Seals, Alabama, in the spring of 1917.
96 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
After a futile search, the family rented rooms for the first week. This was expensive
and inconvenient, and between working hours aU sought a house into which they
could take their furniture. They finally found a five-room flat on Federal Street.
The bunding had been considered uninhabitable and dangerous. Three of the five
rooms were almost totally dark. The plumbing was out of order. There was no
bath, and the toilet was outside of the house. There was neither electricity nor gas,
and the family used oil lamps. The rent was $i s per month. Although the combined
income of the family could easily have made possible a better house, they could find
none.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were farmers in the South. On the farm Mrs. Thomas
did the work of a man along with her husband. Both are illiterate. The daughter
had reached the fourth grade and the boy the fifth grade in school. At home they
belonged to a church and various fraternal orders and took part in rural community life.
On their arrival in Chicago they were short of funds. Father and son went to
work at the Stock Yards. Although they had good jobs they found their income
insufficient; the girl went to work in a laundry, and the mother worked as a laundress
through the first winter for $i a day. She later discovered that she was working for
half the regular rate for laundry work. Soon she went back to housekeeping to reduce
the food biU.
Alt the family were timid and self-conscious and for a long time avoided contacts,
thus depriving themselves of helpful suggestions. The children became ashamed of
the manners of then: parents and worked diligently to correct their manner of speech.
The children attended Wendell Phillips night school in the hope of improving their
community status.
The freedom and independence of Negroes in the North have been a constant
novelty to them and many times they have been surprised that they were ''not
noticed enough to be mistreated." They have tried out various amusement places,
parks, ice-cream parlors, and theaters near their home on the South Side and have
enjoyed them because they were denied these opportunities in their former home.
The combined income of this family is $65 a week, and their rent is now low.
Many of their old habits have been preserved because of the isolation in which they
have lived and because they have not been able to move into better housing.
The Jones family. — Mr. Jones, his wife, a six-year-old son, and a nephew aged
twenty-one, came from Texas early in 1919. Although they arrived after the heaviest
migration, they experienced the same difficulties as earlier comers.
They searched for weeks for a suitable house. At first they secured one room
on the South Side in a rooming-house, where they were obliged to provide gas, coal,
linen, bedding, and part of the furniture. After a few weeks they got two rooms for
light housekeeping, for |io a month. The associations as well as the physical condi-
tion of the house were intolerable. They then rented a flat on Carroll Avenue in
another section. The building was old and run down. The agent for the property,
to induce tenants to occupy it, had promised to dean and decorate it, but failed
to keep his word. When the Jones family asked the owner to make repairs, he refused
flatly and was exceedingly abusive.
Finally Jones located a house on the West Side that was much too large for his
family, and the rent too high. They were forced to take lodgers to aid in paying the
rent. This was against the desire of Mrs. Jones, who did not like to have strangers
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 97
in her house. The house has six rooms and bath and is in a state of dilapidation.
Mr. Jones has been forced to cover the holes in the floor with tin to keep out the rats.
The plumbing is bad. During the winter there is no running water, and the agent
for the building refuses to clean more than three rooms or to furnish screens or storm
doors or to pay for any plumbing. In the back yard under the house is an accumula-
tion of ashes, tin cans, and garbage left by a long series of previous tenants. There
is no alley back of the house, and all of the garbage from the back yard must be carried
out through the front. Jones made a complaint about insanitary conditions to the
Health Department, and the house was inspected, but so far nothing has been done.
It was difficidt to induce the agent to supply garbage cans.
Jones had reached the eighth grade, and Mrs. Jones had completed the first
year of high school. The nephew had finished public-school grades provided in his
home town and had been taught the boiler trade. He is now pursuing this trade
in hope of securing sufficient funds to complete his course in Conroe College, where
he has already finished the first year. The boy of six was placed in a West Side
school. He was removed from this school, however, and sent back south to Uve
with Mrs. Jones's mother and attend school there. Mrs. Jones thought that the
influence of the school children of Chicago was not good for him. He had been almost
blinded by a blow from a baseball bat in the hands of one of several older boys who
continually annoyed him. The child had also learned vulgar language from his
school associates.
The Jones family were leading citizens in their southern home. They were
members of a Baptist church, local clubs, and a missionary society, while Jones was
a member and officer in the Knights of Tabor, Masons, and Odd Fellows. They
owned their home and two other pieces of property in the same town, one of which
brought in $20 a month. As a boUer-maker, he earned about $50 a week, which is
about the same as his present income. Their motive in coming to Chicago was to
escape from the undesirable practices and customs of the South.
They had been told that no discrimination was practiced against Negroes in
Chicago; that they could go where they pleased without the embarrassment or hin-
drance because of their color. Accordingly, when they first came to Chicago, they
went into drug-stores and restaurants. They were refused service in numbers of
restaurants and at the refreshment counters in some drug-stores. The family has
begun the re-estabhshment of its community life, having joined a West Side Baptist
church and taking an active interest in local organizations, particularly the Wendell
Phillips Social Settlement. The greatest satisfaction of the Joneses comes from the
"escape from Jim Crow conditions and segregation" and the securing of improved
conditions of work, although there is no difference in the wages.
VI. MIGRANTS IN CHICAGO
Migrants have been visited in their homes, and met in industry, in the
schools, and in contacts on street cars and in parks. Efforts have been made
to learn why they came to Chicago and with what success they were adjusting
themselves to their new surroundings.
Some of the replies to questions asked are given:
Question: Why did you come to Chicago ?
98 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Answers:
1. Looking for better wages.
2. So I could support my family.
3. Tired of being a flunky.
4. I just happened to drift here.
5. Some of my people were here.
6. Persuaded by friends.
7. Wanted to make more money so I could go into business; couldn't do it in
the South.
8. To earn more money.
9. For better wages.
10. Wanted to change and come to the North.
11. Came to get more money for work.
12. To better my conditions.
13. Better conditions.
14. Better conditions.
15. Better Uving.
16. More work; came on visit and stayed.
17. Wife persuaded me.
18. To estabhsh a church.
19. Tired of the South.
20. To get away from the South, and to earn more money.
Question: Do you feel greater freedom and independence in Chicago ? In what ways ?
Answers:
1. Yes. Working conditions and the places of amusement.
2. Yes. The chance to make a Uving; conditions on the street cars and in
movies.
3. Going into places of amusement and living in good neighborhoods.
4. Yes. Educationally, and in the home conditions.
5. Yes. Go anywhere you want to go; voting; don't have to look up to the
white man, get off the street for him, and go to the buzzard roost at shows.
6. Yes. Just seem to feel a general feeling of good-fellowship.
7. On the street cars and the way you are treated where you work.
8. Yes. Can go any place I like here. At home I was segregated and not
treated like I had any rights.
9. Yes. Privilege to mingle with people; can go to the parks and places of
amusement, not being segregated.
10. Yes. Feel free to do anything I please. Not dictated to by white people.
11. Yes. Had to take any treatment white people offered me there, compelled
to say "yes ma'am" or "yes sir" to white people, whether you desired to
or not. If you went to an ice cream parlor for anything you came outside
to eat it. Got off sidewalk for white people.
12. Yes. Can vote; feel free; haven't any fear; make more money.
13. Yes. Voting; better opportunity for work; more respect from white people.
14. Yes. Can vote; no lynching; no fear of mobs; can express my opinion and
defend myself.
15. Yes. Voting, more privileges; white people treat me better, not as much
prejudice.
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 99
16. Yes. Feel more like a man. Same as slavery, in a way, at home. I don't
have to give up the sidewalk here for white people as in my former home.
17. Yes. No restrictions as to shows, schools, etc. More protection of law.
18. Yes. Have more privileges and more money.
19. Yes. More able to express views on all questions. No segregation or
discrimination.
20. Sure. Feel more freedom. Was not counted in the South; colored people
allowed no freedom at all in the South.
21. Find things quite different to what they are at home. Haven't become
accustomed to the place yet.
Question: What were your first impressions of Chicago ?
Answers:
1. I liked the air of doing things here.
2. A place of real opportunity if you would work.
3. Place just fuU of Ufe. Went to see the sights every night for a month.
4. I thought it was some great place but found out it wasn't. Uncle told me
he was living on Portland Avenue, that it was some great avenue; found
nothing but a mud hole. I sure wished I was back home.
S- When I got here and got on the street cars and saw colored people sitting
by white people all over the car I just held my breath, for I thought any
minute they would start something, then I saw nobody noticed it, and I just
thought this was a real place for colored people. No, indeed, I'll never
work in anybody's kitchen but my own, any more, that's the one thing that
makes me stick to this job.
6. Was completely lost, friend was to meet me but didn't and I was afraid to
ask anyone where to go; finally my friend came; was afraid to sleep first
night — so much noise; thought the cars would finally stop running so I
could rest.
7. Liked the place.
8. Always Kked Chicago, even the name before I came.
g. Liked it fine.
10. Good city for colored people.
11. Fine city.
12. Thought it the best place for colored people.
13. Thought it a good place for colored people to live in.
14. Very favorable, thought it the place to be for myself and family.
15. Didn't like it; lonesome, until I went out. Then liked the places of amuse-
ment which have no restrictions.
16. Liked it fine, like it even better now.
17. Liked Chicago from the first visit made two years ago; was not satisfied
until I was able to get back.
18. Think I will like it later on.
Question: In what respects is life harder or easier here than in the South ?
Answers:
1. Easier. I don't have to work so hard and get more money.
2. Easier in that here my wife doesn't have to work. I just couldn't make it
by myself in the South.
3. Living is much easier; chance to learn a trade. I make and save more money.
100 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
4. Easier, you can make more money and it means more to you.
5. Easier to make a living here.
6. Easier, I get more money for my work and have some spare time.
7. Have better home, but have to work harder. I make more money, but
spend it all to live.
8. Have more time to rest here and don't work as hard.
9. Find it easier to live because I have more to live on.
10. Earn more money; the strain is not so great wondering from day to day
how to make a little money do.
11. Work harder here than at home.
12. Easier. Work is hard, but hours are short. I make more money and can
live better.
13. More money for work, though work is harder. Better able to buy the neces-
sities of life.
14. Easier; more work and more money and shorter hours.
15. Living higher, but woidd rather be here than in South. I have shorter
hours here.
16. Don't have to work as hard here as at home. Have more time for rest and
to spend with family.
17. Easier to Uve in St. Louis. More work here and better wages. Living
higher here. Saved more there.
18. Must work very hard here, much harder than at home.
19. Harder because of increased cost of living.
20. The entire family feels that Ufe is much easier here than at home. Do not
find work as hard anjrwhere.
Question: What do you like about the North ?
Answers:
1. Freedom in voting and conditions of colored people here. I mean you can
Uve in good houses; men here get a chance to go with the best-looking girls
in the race; some may do it in Memphis, but it ain't always safe.
2. Freedom and chance to make a living; privileges.
3. Freedom and opportunity to acquire something.
4. Freedom allowed in every way.
5. More money and more pleasure to be gotten from it; personal freedom
Chicago affords, and voting.
6. Freedom and working conditions.
7. Work, can work any place, freedom.
8. The schools for the children, the better wages, and the privileges for colored
people.
9. The chance colored people have to Uve; privileges allowed them and better
homes.
10. The friendliness of the people, the climate which makes health better.
11. Like the privileges, the climate; have better health.
12. No discrimination; can express opinion and vote.
13 . Freedom of speech , right to live and work as other races. Higher pay for labor.
14. Freedom; privileges; treatment of whites; ability to live in peace; not
held down.
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH loi
IS- Freedom of speech and action. Can live without fear, no Jim Crow.
i6. More enjoyment; more places of attraction; better treatment; better
schools for children.
17. Liberty, better schools.
18. I like the North for wages earned and better homes colored people can live
in and go more places than at home.
19. Privileges, freedom, industrial and educational facilities.
20. The people, the freedom and liberty colored people enjoy here that they never
before experienced. Even the ways of the people are better than at home.
21. Haven't found anything yet to like, except wife thinks she will like the
opportunity of earning more money than ever before.
Question: What difficulties do you think a person from the South meets in coming to
Chicago ?
Answers:
1. Getting used to climate and houses.
2. Getting accustomed to cold weather and flats.
3. Getting used to living conditions and make more money; not letting the
life here run away with you.
4. Adjusting myself to the weather and flat life: rooming and "closeness"
of the houses.
5. Getting used to flat conditions and crowded houses.
6. Getting used to living in flats, and growing accustomed to being treated like
people.
7. Getting used to the ways of the people; not speaking or being friendly;
colder weather, hard on people from the South.
8. Just the treatment some of the white people give you on the trains. Some-
times treat you like dogs.
9. Know of no difficulties a person from the South meets coming to Chicago.
10. I didn't meet any difficulties coming from the South. Know of none persons
would likely meet.
11. Can think of no difficulties persons meet coming from the South to Chicago.
12. Adjustment to working conditions and climate.
13. Climatic changes.
14. Change in climate, crowded bVing conditions, lack of space for gardens, etc.
15. Change in climate, crowded housing conditions.
16. Coming without knowing where they are going to stop usually causes some
difficulty. Get in with wrong people who seek to take advantage of the
ignorance of newcomers.
17. Becoming adjusted to climate.
18. If they know where they are going, when they come here. The danger lies
in getting among the wrong class of people.
ig. Adjustment to city customs, etc.
20. If persons know where they are going and what they are going to do, wUl
not have any trouble. Must come with the intention of working or else
expect many difficulties.
21. Know of no difficulties.
Question: Do you get more comforts and pleasures from your higher wages ?
102 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Answers:
1. Yes. Better homes, places of amusement, and the buying of your clothes
here. You can try on things; you can do that in some stores in Memphis,
but not in all.
2. Yes. Living in better houses, can go into almost any place if you have the
money, and then the schools are so much better here.
3. Yes. I Uve better, save more, and feel more like a man.
4. Yes. I can buy more, my wife can have her clothes fitted here, she can
try on a hat, and if she doesn't want it she doesn't have to keep it; go
anywhere I please on the cars after I pay my fare; I can do any sort of
work I know how to do.
5. Yes. Go anywhere I please, buy what I please; ain't afraid to get on cars
and sit where I please.
6. Well, I make more money. I can't save anything from it. There are so
many places to go here, but down South you work, work, work, and you
have to save, for you haven't any place to spend it.
7. Yes. Better homes. Spend money anjrwhere you want to, go anywhere
you have money enough to go; don't go out very much but like to know
I can where and when I want to.
8. Have chance to make more money, but it is all spent to keep family up.
9. At home did not earn much money and did not have any left to go what
few places colored people were allowed to go. Here, Negroes can have
whatever they want.
10. Don't have to worry about how you are going to live. More money earned
affords anything wanted.
11. Have more comforts in the home that could not have at home; more con-
veniences here. Wages sons earn make it possible to have aJl that is wanted.
12. Yes. Better houses and more enjoyment.
13. Yes. I live in larger house and have more conveniences. Can take more
pleasure; have more leisure time.
14. Yes. Better houses and more amusement. More time of my own, better
furniture and food.
15. Yes. Better houses and furniture. More pleasures because of shorter
hours of work, giving me more time.
16. What little was earned at home was used for food and clothing. Here,
earn more, have more to spend; now and then put some in the bank, and
can spend some for pleasure without strain or inconvenience.
17. Yes. More places to go, ptarks and playgrounds for children, and no differ-
ence made between white and colored. Houses more convenient here.
18. Have more money to spend but when you have to hve in houses where
landlord won't fix up you can't have much comfort. Go no place for pleasure,
but enjoy the chance of earning more money.
19. No comment.
20. Have money to get whatever is desired. Live in a better house and can go
places denied at home. All the family are perfectly satisfied and are happier
than they have ever been.
21. Live in better house than ever lived in. Never had the comforts furnished
here. Some houses there had no water closets; only had cistern and wells
out in the yard.
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 103
Question: Are you advising friends to come to Chicago ?
Answers:
1. Yes. People down there don't really believe the things we write back,
I didn't believe myself until I got here.
2. No. I'am not going to encourage them to come, for they might not make it,
then I would be blamed.
3. Yes. If I think they wiU work.
4. Some of them, those who I think would appreciate the advantages here.
5. No. Not right now, come here and get to work, strikes come along, they're
out of work. Come if they want to, though.
6. Yes. I have two sisters still in Lexington. I am trying to get them to
come up here. They can't understand why I stay here, but they'll see if
they come.
7. Yes. People here don't realize how some parts of the South treat colored
folks; poor white trash were awful mean where we came from; wish all the
colored folks would come up here where you ain't afraid to breathe.
8. Yes. Want friend and husband to come; also sister and family who want
her to come back that they may see how she looks before they break up and
come. Yoimgest son begs mother never to think of going back South.
Oldest son not so well satisfied when first came, but since he is working,
likes it a little better.
Only a few migrants were found who came on free transportation, and many
of these had friends in Chicago before they came. Few expressed a desire to
return.
Vn. EFEORTS TO CHECK MIGRATION
The withdrawal of great mmibers of Negroes, both because of the migration
and because of military service, left large gaps in the industries of the South
dependent upon Negro labor. Thousands of acres of rice and sugar cane
went to waste. The turpentine industry of the Carolinas and the milling
interests of Tennessee were hard pressed for labor. Cotton-growing was
much affected, especially in the delta region of Mississippi. The situation
became critical, presenting a real economic problem. Organized efforts were
made, and at times extreme measures were taken, to start a return movement.
A report was circulated that on one day in the winter of 1919 in Chicago,
17,000 Negroes were counted in a bread line. The "horrors of northern
winters" were played up as they had been during the migration.
The press throughout the country was used to spread broadcast the
South's needs, its kind treatment of Negroes, its opportunities, and its growing
change of heart on the question of race relations. Newspaper articles from
sections of the North and South carried about the same story. The Chicago
Tribune said in a conspicuous headline: "Louisiana Wants Negroes to Return."
Other such headlines were: Washington Post — "South Needs Negroes. Try
to Get Labor for Their Cotton Fields. Tell of Kind Treatment"; New York
Everdng Sun — "To Aid Negro Return"; Philadelphia Press — "South Is
Urging Negroes to Return. Many Districts Willing to Pay Fare of Those
104 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Who Come Back"; Memphis Commercial Appeal — "South Is Best for Negro,
Say Mississippians. Colored People Found Prosperous and Happy."
Though such reports were widely circulated throughout the North, the
actual efforts of agencies from the South seeking the return of Negro labor
centered around Chicago. This was due largely to the fact that from the
southern states most acutely in need the drift during the migration had been
to Chicago, and because the increase of Chicago's Negro population had been
so great.
Immediately following the riots in Chicago and Washington, rumors
gained wide currency that hundreds of migrants were leaving for sections of
the South. So strong was the beUef in the truth of this report that a Chicago
newspaper telegraphed the governors of southern states inquiring the number
of Negroes they needed. Agents of the South, including representatives of
the Tennessee Association of Commerce, the Department of Immigration of
Louisiana, the Mississippi Welfare League, and the Southern Alluvial Land
Association, visited northern cities with a view to providing means for the
return of Negroes. Although free transportation was offered, together with
promises of increased wages and better living conditions, the various commis-
sions were disappointed.
Their interviews with Negroes living in Chicago revealed a determi-
nation not to retiurn to conditions they had left two years before. To offset
this objection, two Chicago Negroes and one white man were taken to
Mississippi by a representative of the Mississippi Welfare League to make an
investigation. They visited several delta towns, traveUng for the most part
in automobiles and interviewing farmers and laborers. They reported in
substance as f oUows :
Railroad accommodations for Negroes were adequate and uniform, irrespective
of locality; treatment accorded Negro passengers by railroad officials was courteous
throughout. Public-school terms were nine months in the city and eight months
in the country for white and colored alike, and the strongest possible human ties
between planter and worker exist In no instance were Negroes not given the
freest use of sidewalks, streets, and thoroughfares and we were unable to find any
trace of friction of any kind between the races.
An effort was then made by the Chicago Urban League to ascertain the
precise state of affairs. Its southern representative questioned hundreds of
Negroes living in the South, regarding improved relationships. Answers to
this query were all about the same. Some of them are, quoted:
There has been no change. Lincoln League organized in this city has been
denounced by the white newspapers as a movement that will cause trouble, and the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Urban Leagues
of various cities have been called "strife breeders and meddlers in southern afEairs";
Jim Crow accommodations are just the same as ever. If there is any change for the
better, I can't see it.
THE MIGRATION OF NEGROES FROM THE SOUTH 105
It is ridiculous for any Negro to say he finds conditions better here. Don't
you remember that Negroes answering an invitation to meet the Welfare Committee
of white men not long ago were told as soon as they got into the meeting place that
the Committee was ready to hear what Negroes wanted, but that the question of the
Negro's right to exercise the right of voting would not be allowed to be discussed at
all, and that that must be agreed to before any discussion whatever would be enter-
tained, and that the Negroes left the meeting place without a chance to demand the
one thing they wished to enjoy ?
Some deceitful, lying Negro may say that times are better, but he would, at the
same time, know that he was not telling the truth. Haven't you been hearing more
reports of lynching of Negroes than you ever did in your life, since the war ? Where,
then, is there any improvement ? Ain't all the judges, all the police and constables,
all the juries as white man as ever ? Does the word of a Negro count for more now
than it did before the war ? Don't white men insult our wives and daughters and
sisters and get off at it, unless we take the law into our own hand and punish them
for it ourselves, and get lynched for protecting our own, just as often as ever ? How
much more schooling from pubhc funds do our children get now than they got before
the war ? How much more do we have to say now than we had to say before the war
about the way the taxes we pay shall be spent for schools, or for salaries, or for anything
connected with administration and government? Why, even the colored man in
Caddo parish who subscribed for $100,000 in Liberty bonds and bought lots of War
Savings stamps, and others who bought less, but in the hundreds, and thousands of
the bonds and War Saving stamps, have no more to say about affairs now than they
ever had. Where is the improvement ?
The Urban League also made an inquiry into the numbers of Negroes leav-
ing and arriving in the week following the riot, and when the strongest efforts
were being made to induce a return of migrants. During this period 261
Negroes came to Chicago and 219 left the city. Of the 219 leaving, eighty-
three gave some southern state as their destination. For the most part, they
were persons returning from vacations in the North, and Chicago Negroes
going South to visit or on business. Some were rejoining their families.
Fourteen were leaving because of the riot. None, however, indicated any
intention of going South to work.
It is clear that migrant Negroes are not returning South. On the contrary,
there is a small but continuous stream of migration to the industrial centers
of the North. No great number of Negroes returned to the South even during
the trjdng unemployment period in the early part of 1921. Census figures
for Chicago for 1920 show a number much smaller than the usual estimates
of the size of the Negro population during the period of the heaviest migration.
This may be accounted for by the fact that Chicago has been used as a
re-routing point to other northern cities. The decrease from 1918 undoubtedly
means that some returned to the South, but it is apparent that the great
majority of the migrants remain, despite the hardships attending shortage of
work.
CHAPTER IV
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO
A. DISTRIBUTION AND DENSITY
The Negro population of Chicago, as reported by the Federal Bureau of
the Census, was 44,103 in 1910 and 109,594 in 1920. The increase during the
decade was therefore 65,491, or 148.5 per cent. Negroes constituted 2 per
cent of the city's total population in 1910 and 4.1 per cent in 1920. The
increase in the white population during the decade was 450,047, or 21 per cent,
bringing the white population up to 2,589,104 in 1920. The remainder of
the population consisted of 3,007 Chinese, Japanese, and Indians, of whom
there were 2,123 in 1910. Chicago's total population in 1920 was 2,701,705.
In order to indicate where the Negro population of the city lived in 19 10
and in 1920, the Commission sought the co-operation of the Census Bureau.
On the basis of a rough preliminary survey, certain areas iu which it was
evident that the main groups of Negroes lived were delimited, and Uberal
margins allowed to include scattered residents hving near the main areas.
For these areas the Census Bureau supplied figures showing the total and
Negro population by census-enumeration districts. Since each enumeration
district embraced from one or two to six city blocks in the more crowded
portions of the city, the data thus made available enabled the Commission
to prepare maps showiag with a fair degree of accuracy where Negroes in
Chicago lived in 1910 and in 1920, and also their proportion to the total
population in these units of area.
The 5T0 enumeration districts covered for 1910 included 40,739, or 92.3
per cent of the 44,103 Negroes reported by the Census Bureau for that year;
and the 730 enimieration districts covered for 1920 included 106,089, or 96.8
per cent of the 109,594 Negroes reported for that year. The small remaining
number of Negroes scattered throughout the parts of the city not embraced
in these areas in 1910 and 1920 included many janitors living in the buildings
where they worked, and others employed in private homes and living on the
premises, thus making their presence inconspicuous among white residents.
The areas in which 40,739 Negroes were living in 1910 contained a total popula-
tion of 657,044, the Negroes thus constituting 6.2 per cent of the total. The
areas in' which 106,089 Negroes lived in 1920 contained a total population of
779,279, the Negroes thus constituting about 13 per cent of the total.
The outstanding fact concerning these data for 1910 and 1920 is that the
large increase in Negro population did not bring into existence any new large
colonies but resiilted in the expansion and increased density of areas in which
groups of Negroes already lived in 1910.
106
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 107
By far the largest number of Negroes in 1910 and 1920 lived in what may-
be termed the old "South Side," which mcludes the original "Black Belt"
embracing the area from Twelfth to Thirty-first streets and from Wentworth
to Wabash avenues. This and other areas of Negro residence in various parts
of the city, with their approximate boundaries in 1910 and 1920 and their
Negro population for both years, are Usted here under designations which are
arbitrarily given for convenient reference; they do not embrace the whole
of each area commonly included under such designations.
SOUTH sroE
1910 boundaries: On the north, TweKth Street; on the west, Wentworth Avenue;
on the south, Fifty-fifth Street; and on the east, Indiana Avenue. Negro population,
34j33Sj or 11 per cent of the total population of 311,049.
1920 boundaries: The same as in 1910. Negro population, 92,501, or 24.6
per cent of the total population of 376,171.
WOODLAWN
1910 boundaries: On the north. Sixty-third Street; on the west, Eberhart
Avenue; on the south. Sixty-seventh Street; and on the east. Grand Avenue. Negro
population, 319; total population, 4,783.
1920 boundaries: On the north. Sixty-first Street; on the west, South Park
Avenue; on the south. Sixty-seventh Street; and on the east. Cottage Grove Avenue.
Negro population, 1,235; total population, 8,861.
LAKE PARK AVENTJE AREA
1910 boundaries: On the north. Fifty- third Street; on the west. Harper Avenue;
on the south. Fifty-seventh Street; and on the east. Lake Park Avenue. Negro
population, 438.
1920 boundaries the same as in 1910. Negro population, 238.
OGDEN PARK AREA
(Vicinity of Ogden Park in Englewood)
1910 boundaries: On the north. Fifty-ninth Street; on the west, Loomis Street;
on the south. Sixty-third Street; and on the east, Halsted Street. Negro population,
1,403; total population, 25,880.
1920 boundaries the same as in 1910, Negro population, 1,859; total population,
38,893..
MORGAN PARK AREA
1910 boundaries: On the north, 107th Street: on the west, Vincennes Avenue;
on the south, iiith Street; and on the east, Loomis Street. Negro population, 126.
1920 boundaries, the same as in 1910, except on the south, 115th Street. Negro
population, 695.
THREE MINOR COLONIES IN THE SOUTHERN DIVISION OF THE CITY
South Chicago in the vicinity of the steel plants bordering on Lake Michigan at
Ninety-first Street: 36 Negroes in 1910 and 117 in 1920.
io8 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Burnside, in the vicinity of South State and Ninety-first streets: 2 Negroes in
1910 and 205 ia 1920.
Oakwoods, in the vicinity immediately east of Oakwoods Cemetery, between
Sixty-seventh and Seventy-first streets: 52 Negroes in 1919 and 58 in 1920.
WEST SIDE
1910 boundaries: On the north, Austin Avenue; on the west. Western Avenue;
on the south. Lake Street to Racine to Washington to Halsted; on the east, Halsted
Street. Negro population, 3,379. This includes a scattering of Negroes living
immediately southwest of this area.
1920 boundaries: On the north, Austin Street; on the west, California Avenue;
on the south, Washington Boulevard; and on the east, Morgan Street. Negro
population, 8,363, including scattered residents as far south as Twelfth Street.
NORTH SIDE
1910 boundaries: On the north. North Avenue; on the west, Larrabee Street;
on the south, Chicago Avenue; and on the east, State Street. Negro population, 744.
1920 boundaries: The same as in 1910. Negro population, 1,050.
RAVENSWOOD
1910 boundaries: On the north, Lawrence Avenue; on the west, Ashland Avenue;
on the south, Montrose Avenue; and on the east, Sheridan Road. Negro popula-
tion, 105.
1920 boundaries: The same as in 1910. Negro population, 175.
The total Negro population in the north division of the city, including the part
designated "North Side," the Ravenswood colony, and scattered residents in other
parts, was 1,427 in 1910 and 1,820 in 1920.
B. NEIGHBORHOODS OF NEGRO RESIDENCE
While the principal colony of Chicago's Negro population is situated in a
central part of the South Side, Negroes are to be found in several other parts
of the city in proportions to total population ranging from less than i per cent
to more than 95 per cent. In some of these neighborhoods whites and Negroes
have become adjusted to one another; in others they have not. There are
numerous degrees of variation between the two extremes. In this study the
term "adjusted neighborhood" indicates one in which whites and Negroes
have become accommodated to each other, and friction is either non-existent
or negligible; "non-adjusted neighborhood" is one where misunderstandings,
dislikes, and antagonisms resulting from contacts of any degree between whites
and Negroes express themselves in racial hostility, sometimes involving open
clashes.
I. ADJUSTED NEIGHBORHOODS
I. THE SOUTH SIDE
The most striking example of "adjusted neighborhoods" is the district
known as the "Black Belt." Because 90 per cent of the Negroes of Chicago
live within this area, it is usually assumed that the district is 90 per cent
RACIAL CONTACTS AMONG CHILDREN IN AN ADJUSTED NEIGHBORHOOD
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 109
Negro. This, however, is not the case. The area between Twelfth and
Thirty-ninth streets, Wentworth Avenue and Lake Michigan, includes the
oldest and densest Negro population of any section of its size in Chicago.
However, the actual numbers of whites and Negroes living there are 42,797
and 54,906 respectively. In this area the Negro population has increased
gradually and without disturbance for many years. Although for a long period
Negroes were confined to the area bounded by State Street, Wentworth
Avenue, Twelfth, and Thirty-ninth streets, their movement into the neighbor-
hood east of State Street was ultimately looked upon as a natural and expected
expansion. Within the whole of this territory a relationship exists, which,
although perhaps not uniformly friendly, yet is without friction or disorder.
During the riot few white persons living or engaged in business there were at-
tacked by Negroes, who were in the majority in many parts of the area. Many
whites remaining in the area, which was formerly all white, are small property
owners who for sentimental reasons prefer to live there. Numbers of family
hotels and large apartment houses there continue to be occupied by whites,
who are apparently little affected by the presence of 10 per cent more Negroes
than whites around them. Michigan Avenue and Grand Boulevard are the
streets into which Negroes have moved most recently. The only recorded
bombing within this area occurred on Grand Boulevard. The Grand Boulevard
district is affiliated with the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners'
Association. Although the bombing was an expression of resentment against
Negroes because they moved into this block, there are circumstances which
indicate that the resentment did not come from the neighbors. For example,
the wife of a Negro physician owning and living in a house in the same block
was asked by her white neighbors to serve as chairman of a committee to keep
up the property in the neighborhood.
The first Negro family to move into the Vernon Avenue block immediately
south of Thirty-first Street bought its residence in 191 1. It was five years
before another Negro family came. White neighbors, who were and are very
friendly, said this family's good care of its lawn was an example for the whole
block.
When an apartment house in which a Negro family Uved on South Park
Avenue near Thirty-first Street was burned, white neighbors took them into
their home and kept them untU another house was secured. At a meeting of
the City Club of Chicago a white man who had lived in this area for forty
years thus characterized the relations between whites and Negroes living there:
Having lived on the South Side in what is now known as the "Black Belt" for
forty years, I can testify that I have never had more honest, quiet, and law-abiding
neighbors than those who are of the African race, either fuU or mixed blood. In
the precinct where I live we have several families blessed with many orderly and
weU-behaved children, of Caucasian and African blood. They seem to get along
nicely, and why should they not? .... There is no race question, it is a question
of intelligence and morality, pure and simple.
no THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Occasional minor misunderstandings have resulted from contacts in this
area, but they have not been conspicuously marked by racial bitterness.
Objections, sometimes expressed when the tradition of an "aU white" neighbor-
hood was first broken, disappeared as the neighbors came to know each other.
Long residence is apparently one condition of the adjustment process.
Expansion and adjustment.— Th.t first noticeable expansion of the Negro
population following the migration in 1917 and 1918 was in the area extending
south from Thirty-ninth Street to Forty-seventh Street onLangley', St. Lawrence,
and Evans avenues. Negroes began moving into this area early in 1917,
first a few and finally in large numbers. There is yet no compact group, for
these Negro families, while numerous, are well distributed. The experiences
of some of the first families there are interesting.
A Negro woman bought a piece of property on Langley Avenue, near
Forty-third Street, when every other family in the block was white. The
courtesy shown her by them was aU that could be desired, she declares. There
are stiU six or eight white famiUes in the block, and they continue on the most
friendly terms with her. A Negro woman in another block has white neighbors
all around her, but there has been no racial objection or friction. Another,
who owns her property on Evans Avenue, has had no trouble with white families
that remain in the block. So with a Negro who rents from the Negro owner of
a flat on East Thirty-sixth Street. A Negro who has bought a home on St.
Lawrence Avenue near Forty-seventh Street declares that the white families
living thereabouts "treat my family right." In one block on St. Lawrence
Avenue a Negro family is surrounded by white neighbors, but no trouble has
been experienced. In a block on Langley Avenue another family of Negroes has
had no clashes with the white neighbors who compose most of the neighborhood.
A woman who built her home in the 4800 block on Champlain Avenue, when
hers was the only Negro family there and has hved there ever since, had no
trouble with neighbors until other Negroes moved in. Then a white woman
circulated a petition for the purpose of compelling the Negroes to move out.
This effort failed. In another block on East Forty-sixth Street a Negro family
hves in a neighborhood which has a majority of whites, but the relations have
been amicable. An apartment house on Champlain Avenue near Forty-sixth
Street is occupied entirely by Negroes, though there are white famiUes all
through the neighborhood. One Negro who has lived there for three years
says they have never been molested. A pioneer Negro family in a white block
on Vernon Avenue near Thirty-ninth Street reports no trouble with the white
neighbors.
Two women who were among the last of the whites to leave the Langley
Avenue vicinity say they always found the Negroes to be kindly neighbors. A
Negro family on Forty-first Street has been there a year without friction with
white neighbors. In another block on East Forty-second Street a Negro woman
reported that, though there are white people all through the :ieighborhood,
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THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO iii
the two races get along peaceably. In the 400 block of East Forty-sixth
Street a similar report is given. In still another block on Champlain Avenue
lives a woman who has been in the midst of white famihes for a nimiber of
years without experiencing animosity. On East Forty-second Street a Negro
family has Uved for three years in similar freedom from racial friction.
In another instance a pioneer Negro family in a block otherwise whoUy
white was well regarded by all except one of the neighbors. This white man
who voiced loudly his objections to the "invasion" was one who, because of
his drunken habits and troublesome natiure, had long been considered an
undesirable neighbor by other whites in the block.
Woodlawn. — Relations in Woodlawn, where the Negro population increase
has been relatively large, are for the most part friendly. There is an association
of Negro property owners interested in keeping up the physical appearance
of their homes in the neighborhood. No clashes have been reported except
one instance of a group of white boys from another neighborhood throwing
stones at a building where they saw Negroes. Following the stirring up and
organization of anti-Negro sentiment in Hyde Park, an attempt was made to
organize white Woodlawn property owners against the invasion of the district
by Negroes. This organization was not a great success. There have been no
bombings in this district, and no concerted opposition to the presence of Negroes
as neighbors. Long residence together and the good character and conduct
of both Negroes and whites are probably important reasons for lack of friction.
2. THE WEST SIDE
A situation like that in the adjusted neighborhoods of the South Side
exists in the district bounded by Washington and Kinzie, Ashland and Cali-
fornia avenues, where there has been a settlement of Negroes for many years.
Houses are cheaper than on the South Side, and although the general standard
of workingmen's homes compares favorably with that on the South Side,
few of the abandoned good residences formerly occupied by wealthy persons
are available for Negroes. The densest and oldest settlement of Negroes is
within the boundaries named, although the Negro residence area actually
extends many blocks beyond them on all sides. There has been little friction,
though the area has 9,221 whites and 6,520 Negroes. South of Washington
Boulevard occasional difficulties have been met by the incoming Negro popula-
tion, similar to those found in areas where the most congested Negro population
on the South Side is spreading. On the West Side no bombings have occurred,
although there have been frequent protests against the expansion. Some
streets have come to be recognized as Negro streets.
In recent years many Negroes have bought homes on the West Side when
they could not easily find living quarters in or near the older Negro residence
areas on the South Side. Almost uniformly they keep their homes in good
condition, which cannot be said of all the Negroes who settled early in this
112 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
district. West Side Negroes, laborers for the most part, are generally home-
loving, hard-working, and desirous of improving conditions for their children.
Older settlers among them have been able to make their adjustments without
great difficulty and with no marked antagonism from white neighbors.
Though occasionally trivial conflicts arise between Negro and white neigh-
bors, the attitude of whites in nearby areas is customarily friendly if not cordial.
For example, a Negro doctor has a considerable practice among nearby ItaUans
in the vicinity of the Chicago Commons Social Settlement. At Chicago
Commons itself no distinction is made with respect to the few Negro famiUes
which at times make use of the faciUties. Children of these families have
entered classes and clubs, and one of them became a leader of a group.
The Poles who mainly occupy the neighborhood around the Northwestern
University Social Settlement are entirely friendly to Negroes. Three years ago
an educated Negro was at the head of the boys' department of the settlement,
and, with one exception, no one in that position has made more friends among
the boys and their families.
On the West Side, as on the South and North sides, Negroes have estab-
hshed their own restaurants and barber shops and some groceries and deUca-
tessen stores. There are several theaters whose patronage is largely Negro.
3. THE NORTH SmE
On the North Side, Negroes live among foreign whites and near a residence
area of wealthy Chicagoans. Their first appearance occasioned little notice
or objection, since they were generally house servants Uving near their work.
The largest numbers are to be found between Chicago Avenue and Division
Street on North Wells, Franklin, and cross streets connecting them.
This neighborhood has experienced several complete changes in population.
It was first occupied by Irish, then by Swedes, then by Italians. The present
neighbors of Negroes are Itahans. As indicated by the population changes,
the neighborhood is old and run down, and the reasons given by Negroes for
hving there are low rents and proximity to the manufacturing plants where
they work.
The Negroes there are renters, because the property, although undesirable
for residence purposes, is valuable for business and too expensive for them to
buy. The famiUes are chiefly respectable, hard-working people. They have
their own barber and tailor shops and similar business places. In social affairs
they confine themselves largely to meetings, dances, and similar gatherings
held exclusively for their own race. Formerly the second floor of a building
on Division Street was frequently rented by the Negroes for church and other
meetings, and dances. Recently they have found other meeting places,
particularly for rehgious devotions. Some of their social gatherings and meet-
ings take place at Seward Park.
They are welcomed not only in Seward Park, one of the city's recreation
centers, but in the settlements. At Eh Bates House, 621 West Elm Street,
A SAVINGS BANK IN THE NEGRO RESIDENCE AREA ON SATURDAY EVENING
"a--T^"
CHILDREN AT WORK IN A COMMUNITY GARDEN
THE NEGRO POPtJLATION OF CHICAGO 113
for example, there has been a club of Negro young men, and applications
have been received for admission of Negro children to some classes. The
head resident of the settlement reports, however, that it has not had much
contact with the Negro group. A few Negro children come to the kindergarten ;
a group of Negro boys makes use of the gymnasium, and some neighboring
Negro families have asked settlement residents for advice.
In this neighborhood friendly relations exist between the Sicilians, who
predominate, and their Negro neighbors. Some Negroes live harmoniously
in the same tenements with the Sicihans. Their children play together, and
some Negro children have learned Sicilian phrases, so that they are able to
deal with the SiciUan shopkeepers.
Elsewhere on the North Side the feeling between Itahans and Negroes is
not so cordial. During the riot of 1919, serious trouble was averted on the
North Side through prompt and effective efforts by the pohce and members
of the community. It was reported throughout the district that automobiles
loaded with armed Negroes were on their way from the South Side to "shoot
up the North Side." The Italians immediately armed themselves and began
to shoot recklessly. They were eventually quieted by the police and others,
and there was no retaliation of the Negroes,
Many Negroes who have purchased homes and hved on the North Side for
years report Uttle opposition. One family on North Wells Street has Uved
there since 1888 and now owns several valuable pieces of property. The man
had no trouble in buying property, an^- the whites have always been friendly
to them and to all Negroes in that section. Another Negro family on North
Wells Street, where Negroes first lived, had no difficulty in getting their flat
sixteen years ago. This block is occupied by whites and Negroes without friction.
Minor expressions of antagonism attended the moving in of some Negro
families, but after several months the white neighbors accepted them and
now are on good terms with them.
n. NON-ADJUSTED NEIGHBOIUHOODS
Failure of adjustment between whites and Negroes has greatly accentuated
the difficulties of the housing problem for Negroes. When a general shortage
of housing is relieved there may still be a serious shortage for Negroes because
of the hostiUty of white neighborhoods. The sentiment for "aU-white"
neighborhoods has grown with the increase in Negro population and the
threatened occupancy in small or large degree by Negroes. These non-
adjusted neighborhoods fall into distinct classes:
I. Neighborhoods of unorganized opposition. These are neighborhoods
where few Negroes live. Though contiguous they are sharply separated
from areas of Negro residence and are definitely hostile to Negroes, even those
passing through the neighborhood going to and from work, but the hostility
in them is imorganized.
tt4 THE iSrBGRO IN CHICAGO
2. Neighborhoods of organized opposition, (a) Neighborhoods in which
no Negroes Uve but which are in the line of Negro expansion. Opposition
to threatened invasion has been strong. As yet they are exclusively white,
and every effort is being made to keep them so. They are illustratively
treated here as "exclusive neighborhoods." (b) Neighborhoods in which the
presence of Negro residents is hotly contested, by organized and unorganized
efforts to oust them. These for convenience are termed "contested neighbor-
hoods."
I. NEIGHBORHOODS OF UNORGANIZED OPPOSITION
In Certain West Side neighborhoods white property owners objected to
the expansion of the principal Negro residence area of that section.
The pastor of the Negro Presbyterian Church on Washington Boulevard,
who came to Chicago in 1919, bought the houses at 2006 and 2008 Washington
Boulevard, in which white people had formerly Uved. He moved into one of
them in May, 1919, and both he and his tenants in the other house received
warning letters advising them to move or take the consequences. The last of
these was received during the riot in July, 1919. No attention was paid to them.
During the riots Httle trouble was experienced by the Negroes in the
West Side district, who generally remained in their own houses and neighbor-
hoods. Some became involved in clashes on their way to or from work, but
there was no serious clash.
The district west of Cottage Grove Avenue and south to Sixty-third
Street in Woodlawn is rather sparsely buUt up, most of the buildings being
one- and two-family houses. Numbers of white people in the neighborhood
beUeve that the district has been bUghted because of the occasional presence
of Negroes.
On the North Side some hostihty to Negroes was shown during the 1919
riot. One Negro, who had Uved on North Frankhn Street for five years and
in Chicago for thirty years, told of having been spit at by rowdy ItaUans,
and on another occasion threatened with shooting by young roughs in a
passing automobile. White neighbors, however, intervened. Under pressure
of the riot excitement, some ItaUan children pushed through windows and doors
pictures of skulls and coflSns inked in red. At the time of the riot Eh Bates
House issued a circular deploring race hatred and appealing for order and
fairness.
Although the few Negroes living in the Lake Park Avenue area' have
experienced Uttle opposition in their present homes, there has been no Negro
expansion there. The colony, has in fact, dwindled in size since 1910. It is
made up largely of Negroes who were house servants for white f amihes near-by
or worked in the hotels of the district.
Negroes of this colony are barred from all white restaurants in the district
except one place conducted by a Greek. In three of the motion-picture houses
■ See "Negro Population of Chicago," p. 107.
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 115
they are not allowed to sit in the best seats. In one of these theaters a sign
reads, "We reserve the right to seat our patrons to suit ourselves." Negroes
are permitted in the balcony or in the rear seats of the main floor.
On Langley, St. Lawrence, and adjoining streets south of Fifty-fifth Street
there is considerable friction resulting from the presence of Negroes.
There are residence districts of Chicago adjacent to those occupied by
Negroes in which hostility to Negroes is so marked that the latter not only
find it impossible to live there, but expose themselves to danger even by passing
through. There are no hostile organizations in these neighborhoods, and active
antagonism is usually confined to gang lawlessness. Such a neighborhood is that
west of Wentworth Avenue, extending roughly from Twenty-second to Sixty-
third streets. The number of Negroes Uving there is small, and most of them
live on Ada, Aberdeen, and Loomis streets, south of Fifty-seventh Street.
In the section immediately west of Wentworth Avenue and thus adjoining the
densest Negro residence area in the city, practically no Negroes live. In
addition to intense hostihty, there is a lack of desirable houses. Wentworth
Avenue has long been regarded as a strict boundary line separating white and
Negro residence areas. The district has many " athletic clubs."' The contact
of Negroes and whites comes when Negroes must pass to and from their work
at the Stock Yards and at other industries located in the district. It was
in this district that the largest nimiber of riot clashes occurred.^ Several
Negroes have been murdered here, and numbers have been beaten by gangs
of young men and boys. A white man was killed by one of two Negroes
retvurning from work in that district, who declared that they had been intimi-
dated by the slain man. Speaking of this district, the principal of the Raymond
School, a branch of which is located west of Wentworth Avenue, said that
antagonism of the district against Negroes appeared to have been handed
down through tradition. He said:
We get a good deal of the gang spirit in the new school on the other side of Went-
worth Avenue. There seems to be an inherited antagonism. Wentworth Avenue
is the gang line. They seem to feel that to trespass on either side of that line is
ground for trouble. While colored pupils who come to the school for manual training
are not troubled in the school, they have to be escorted over the line, not because of
trouble from members of the school, but groups of boys outside the school. To give
another illustration, we took a little kindergarten group over to the park. One
little six-year-old girl was struck in the face by a man. A policeman chased but
failed to catch him. The condition is a tradition. It is handed down.
2. NEIGHBORHOODS OP ORGANIZED OPPOSITION
"Exclusive neighborhoods." — In neighborhoods which are exclusive on the
basis of social class, whose restrictions apply to Negroes and the majority
of whites alike, the high price of property is a sufficient barrier against Negroes;
' See "Gangs" and "Clubs" under "Racial Clashes."
» See "Clashes."
ii6 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
it is in the neighborhoods where property values are within the means of Negroes
that fears of invasion are entertained. In many new real estate subdivisions
houses are sold on easy payments. Almost without exception these sections
are exclusively for whites, and usually it is so stated in the prospectus. Other
sections longer established come to notice when some incident provokes the
expression of opposition abeady organized and awaiting it.
Such a section is the neighborhood known as Park Manor and Wakeford.
This neighborhood Ues between Sixty-ninth and Seventy-ninth streets, and
Cottage Grove and Indiana avenues. It is newly built, chiefly with small
dwellings, most of them not more than five years old. Many of the residents
had hved in a neighborhood to the north, nearer Woodlawn, whose growth of
Negro population had caused some of them to move. Park Manor and
Wakeford were startled by the following advertisement in the Chicago Daily
News in July, 1920:
For sale — Coldred Attention: homes on Vernon, South Park and Indiana Aves.
Sold on easy terms; come out and look this locality over; Protestant neighborhood,
Park Manor and Wakeford; good transportation. Blair, 7455 Cottage Grove
Avenue.
Blair, a real estate agent, denied all knowledge of the advertisement and
attributed it either to an enemy or to a practical joker. He sent notices to be
read the following day in the nine churches of the district, so stating, deploring
the occurrence and pledging himself to aid the other residents in excluding
Negroes and in hunting down the author of the advertisement.
Meanwhile the entire district had been aroused, and a meeting called for
the evening of July 12, in front of a chmrch at Seventy-sixth Street and St.
Lawrence Avenue. About 1,000 people gathered for this meeting, which was
conducted by the presidents of the South Park Manor and Wakeford Improve-
ment Associations. The former announced that he had visited the Daily
News and learned that the advertisement had been handed to a clerk in type-
written form and with a typewritten signature, and paid for in advance,
whereas Blah's regular advertising was done on a charge account. This and
other information tended to show that the agent was not responsible for the
advertisement. In its issue of Monday, July 12, the Daily News printed an
explanatory statement.
Other speakers at the meeting were a real estate dealer and an alderman.
Considerable indignation was expressed over the false hght in which the
conununity had been placed. Even the suggestion that Negroes might by
chance become a part of this community seemed to be abhorrent. As far as
Negroes were concerned there was no excitement, but they resented being
used to frighten white residents.
"Contested neighborhoods." — The contested neighborhoods are by far the
most important among the tj^es of non-adjusted neighborhoods, both because
of the actual presence ui them of varying numbers of Negroes and their
^^r ^JAt/m^
XAfr f e03»
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 117
bearing on the future relations of the races. The efforts in such neighborhoods
to keep out Negroes involve stimulation of anti-Negro sentiment and organi-
zation of property owners, and the campaign against the presence of Negroes
as neighbors develops into a campaign against Negroes. Negroes in turn
resent both the propaganda statements and the organized efforts. A continu-
ous struggle, marked by bombings, foreclosures of mortgages, and court dis-
putes, is the result.
The most conspicuous type of a "contested neighborhood" is that known
as Kenwood and Hyde Park. In this general neighborhood, from Thirty-
ninth to Fifty-ninth streets and from State Street to Lake Michigan, hostiUty
toward Negroes has been plainly and even forcibly expressed through organized
efforts to oust them and prevent their further encroachment. The situation
is pecuUar. This is the part of the old South Side in which most of the Negro
population of Chicago has settled. The so-called "Black Belt" has been
overcrowded for years. Old and deteriorated housing and its insufficiency have
been steadily driving Negroes out of it in search of other homes.
It was inevitable that the great influx of migrants should overflow into
surrounding territory. Many migrants brought funds, having sold out their
homes and other possessions. Negroes who had Uved for some time in the
"Black Belt" were eager to escape from it, and here was their opportunity.
They did not wish to go too far from their churches and other established
institutions, and Hyde Park was immediately adjoining.
Conditions in Hyde Park during 1916 and 1917 favored the overflow.
Numbers of new, and in some instances high-grade, apartment houses had
been built during the previous ten or fifteen years. Many whites were leaving
their individual houses to hve in these apartments or to move to the North
and South Shore regions. The houses had become less desirable, and many of
them were vacant. The district, except for certain definite neighborhoods,
had lost much of its former aristocratic air, with the coming of rooming- and
boarding-houses. During 1914, 1915, and 1916 many houses and apartments
in Hyde Park were vacant or were rented at low prices. Inducements were
offered to prospective tenants in the form of extensive decorations and repairs,
or some rental allowance.
Negroes bought houses and apartment buildings and rented anything
rentable. This expansion of the Negro boundaries was promoted by both
white and Negro real estate agents and property owners with httle opposition.
These men soon learned that Negroes, with their increased wages due to war
conditions, were able to make first payments, at least, on houses and to rent
better houses or flats than they had previously been obUged to occupy.
Then the entrance of the United States into the war in 1917 and the
suspension of building operations occasioned a house shortage which became
acute in 1918. The white demand for dwellings began to exceed the supply.
Real estate men of the neighborhood began to discuss plans for re-establishing
ii8 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
it as an exclusively white neighborhood. A survey by the Kenwood and Hyde
Park Property Owners' Association showed that of the 3,300 property owners
in the district, about 1,000 were Negroes. Neighbors had objected little, the
entrance of the Negroes having been so gradual that it was almost unnotice-
able.
Both Kenwood and Hyde Park, using these terms in the more restricted
sense of the original residential locaUties that bore the names, had enjoyed the
activities of local improvement organizations whose fimction it was to keep
the streets sprinkled and clean, to procure better lighting, and otherwise
improve civic conditions. The Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners'
Association became prominent in 1918 on account of its agitation to "make
Hyde Park white." In October, 1918, a form letter was sent out calling a
meeting of the Grand Boulevard district of this Association for October 20.
The letter said in part: "We are a red blood organization who say openly,
we won't be driven out. We make no secret of our methods, they are effective
and legal." A dodger announcing the same meeting read:
Every white person Property Owner in Hyde Park come to this meeting. Protect
your Property.
Shall we sacrifice our property for a third of its value and run Uke rats from a
burning ship, or shaU we put up a united front and keep Hyde Park desirable for
ourselves ? It's not too late.
The Grand Boulevard district, described as extending from Thirty-ninth
to Sixty-third streets, and from Michigan to Cottage Grove avenues was
included in the consoUdated organization of the Hyde Park and Kenwood
districts. This Association, as was asserted by its president, also had the
co-operation of three other similar organizations, one in the Washington Park
district, the Lake Front Community Property Owners' Association, operating
in the district north of Thirty-ninth Street and south of Thirty-third Street,
east of Cottage Grove Avenue; and one in the Englewood district, which is
southwest of Hyde Park.
Organization of sentiment: It does not appear that the residents of this
neighborhood rose spontaneously to oppose the coming in of Negroes. If this
had been the case, the first Negroes moving into the district in 1917 would have
felt the opposition. The sudden interest in race occupancy was based upon
the alleged depreciation of property by Negroes. With this emphasized, it
was not difficult to rally opposition to Negroes as a definite menace. The real
estate men gave the alarm, alleging a shrinkage in property values. The effort
through the Hyde Park and Kenwood Association was intended to stop the
influx and thereby the depreciation. Meetings were held, a newspaper was
published, and hterature was distributed. Racial antagonism was strong in
the speeches at these meetings and in the newspapers. The meeting which
probably marked the first focusing of attention on the Kenwood and Hyde
Park districts was held May s> I9i9» when the sentiment was expressed that
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 119
Negro invasion of the district was the worst calamity that had struck the city
since the Great Fire. A prominent white real estate man said: "Property
owners should be notified to stand together block by block and prevent such
invasion."
Distinctly hostile sentiments were expressed before audiences that came
expecting to hear how their property might be saved from "almost certain
destruction." A speaker at one of the meetings said in part:
We are taught that the principle of virtue and right shall be the rule of our
conduct in all of our transactions with our fellow-men, and therefore it is our duty
to help the Negro, to uplift him in his environment, mark you, not ours. But it is
not our duty, now mark this, it is not our duty as I see it, nor is it according to the
laws of nature for us to live with him as neighbors or on a social basis. There is an
immutable, unchanging law that governs the distribution, association and conduct
of all living creatures. Man is no exception to the universal rule. In every land and
clime man obeys the second law of his nature and seeks his own kind, avoiding every
other, and ever, ever is he warring with his unlike neighbor, families, classes, societies,
tribes, and nations.
There are men who proclaim to the world and ourselves that the destiny of the
black man and the white man is one. I do not believe it; I cannot believe it. Now,
listen! As far back as September 18, 1858, in his famous joint debate with Stephen
A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, that wonderful, Godlike man, the liberator of the
slaves, said this (Now listen, 1858, over sixty years ago): "I am not nor ever have
been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and poUtical equality of the white
and the black race. I am not nor ever have been in favor of qualifying them to
intermarry with white people, and I wiU say in addition to this, that there is a physical
difference between the white and black races living together on terms of social and
political equality."
Other remarks of speakers at these meetings were:
The depreciation of our property in this district has been two hundred and fifty
millions since the invasion. If someone told you that there was to be an invasion
that would injure your homes to that extent, wouldn't you rise up as one nian and
one woman, and say as General Foch said: "They shall not pass" ?
There isn't an insurance company in America that wiU turn around and try to
buck our organization when we as one man give them to understand that it is danger-
ous to insure some people.
Why I remember fifteen or twenty years ago that the district down here at
Wabash Avenue and Calumet was one of the most beautiful and highest-class neigh-
borhoods of this great city. Go down there today and see the ramshackle broken-
down and tumble-down district. That is the result of the new menace that is
threatening this great Hyde Park district. And then tell me whether there are
or not enough red-blooded, patriotic, loyal, courageous citizens of Hyde Park to save
this glorious district from the menace which has brought so much pain and so much
disaster to the district to the south of us.
120 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
You cannot mix oil and water. You cannot assimilate races of a different
color as neighbors along social lines. Remember this: That order is heaven's
first law.
Throughout the meetings, profession was made of friendliness toward the
Negroes, together with a desire to serve their needs and accord them fair
treatment. The Property Owners^ Journal, published by the Association, was
less guarded. While some of its columns made similar professions, its remarks
in other columns were characterized by extreme racial bitterness and
antagonism.
An apparently conciliatory attitude was also taken by speakers at meetings
of the Hyde Park Association and its Grand Boulevard branch. In a meeting
of the latter on January 19, 1920, the chairman declared that he wished to
say for publication: " We have no quarrel with the colored people. We have
no desire to intimidate therri by violence." The mission of the organization,
he said, was peaceable, and it was the purpose to proceed according to law and
order. The Association, he averred, had been charged "by the colored press"
with being parties to bombing outrages. He wanted it known that "we have
denounced officially the action of anyone or any set of people who would indulge
in a practice of that character." The story of the bombing campaign is given
in another section of this report.
At another meeting it was asserted that the Kenwood and Hyde Park
Association had a membership of 1,000 persons, and it was estimated that in
the district to which it appUed the investment in real estate was $1,000,000,000.
The purpose of the organization was declared to be "to guard that
$1,000,000,000 against depreciation from anything." One speaker said he
did not believe there was a piece of property west of Cottage Grove Avenue
in Hyde Park that was worth 33 cents on the doUar "as it stands now with
this invasion." He said his home cost about $25,000, but he felt safe in saying
that he could not then get $8,000 for it. A city alderman was one of the
speakers at this meeting.
Most of the real estate dealers in the area were claimed as members of the
Kenwood and Hyde Park Association or its Grand Boulevard branch. Special
reference was made at various times and in scathing terms to dealers who
declined to affiliate. At the meeting of the Grand Boulevard district on
January 19, 1920, it was reported that the Executive Committee of the parent
association had succeeded diu-ing the previous two or three months in educating
real estate men. "The colored man," a speaker said, "would have never
been in this district had not our real estate men in their ambition to acquire
wealth and commissions, which is perfectly legitimate, put them here, although
this action on their part has been very shortsighted, as some of them now
admit." This speaker said also that the Association's "greatest successes"
had been in getting all but five or six of the real estate men to sign a pledge
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 121
not to show or rent or sell any property "within our locality that we claim
jurisdiction of in the future to colored people."
The Property Owners' Journal exerted no httle influence in the creation
of this sentiment. Claiming a wide circulation, its utterances were so
extreme in bitterness against Negroes that many of the residents of the district,
although opposed to the coming in of Negroes, held aloof from the organization
because they could not indorse appeals to race hatred and advocacy of measures
which they felt were illegal and dangerously near to violence. These extracts
are from its issue of December 13, 191 9;
To damage a man's property and destroy its value is to rob him. The person
who commits that act is a robber. Every owner has the right to defend his property
to the utmost of his abUity with every means at his disposal.
Any property owner who sells property anywhere in our district to undesirables
is an enemy to the white owner and should be discovered and punished.
Protect your property!
Property conservatively valued at $50,000,000 owned by some 10,000 individuals
is menaced by a possible Negro invasion of Hyde Park. The thing is simply impossible
and must not occur.
These are from its issue of January i, 1920:
As stated before, every colored man who moves into Hyde Park knows that he
is damaging his white neighbors' property. Therefore, he is making war on the white
man. Consequently, he is not entitled to any consideration and forfeits his right
to be employed by the white man. If employers should adopt a rule of refusing to
employ Negroes who persist in residing in Hyde Park to the damage of the white
man's property, it would soon show good results.
The Negro is using the Constitution and its legal rights to abuse the moral
rights of the white.
This is from its issue of February 15, 1920:
There is nothing in the make-up of a Negro, physically or mentally, which should
induce anyone to welcome him as a neighbor. The best of them are insanitary,
insurance companies class them as poor risks, ruin alone follows in their path. They
are as proud as peacocks, but have nothing of the peacock's beauty. Certain classes
of the Negroes, such as the PuUman porters, political heelers and hairdressers are
clamoring for equality. They are not content with remaining with the creditable
members of their race, they seem to want to mingle with the whites. Their inordinate
vanity, their desire to shine as social lights caused them to stray out of their paths
and lose themselves. We who -would direct them back where they belong, towards
their people, are censured and called "unjust." Far more unjust are their actions
to the members of their race who have no desire to interfere with the homes of the
white citizens of this district. The great majority of the Negroes are not stirred
by any false ambition that results only in discord. Wherever friction arises between
the races, the suffering is usually endured by the innocent. If these misleaders are
sincere in their protestations of injustice, if they are not hypocritical in their pretence
of solving the race question, let them move. Their actions savour of spite against
122 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
the whites, whose good will can never be attained by such tactics. The place for
a Negro aristocrat is in a Negro neighborhood.
In the same issue, under the heading Caveat Vendor (Let the Seller Beware)
appeared the following:
People who sell their property to Negroes and take first and second mortgages
and promises to pay monthly sums do not know what risks they are taking in trying
to collect the money. Mrs. Nora Foster of 4207 Prairie sold her house to some
niggers and when she went to collect she was assaulted and thrown down a flight of
stairs. This is not a case of saying it served her right because more than seven of
her neighbors sold before Mrs. Foster did, but it does serve as a splendid example
of the fact that niggers are undesirable neighbors and entirely irresponsible and
vicious.
The Negroes' innate desire to "flash," to live in the present, not reckoning the
future, their inordinate love for display has resulted in their being misled by the
example of such individuals as Jesse Binga and Oscar De Priest. In their loud mouth-
ing about equality with the whites they have wormed their course into white neighbor-
hoods, where they are not wanted and where they have not the means to support
property.
Keep the Negro in his place, amongst his people and he is healthy and loyal.
Remove him, or allow his newly discovered importance to remove him from his proper
environment and the Negro becomes a nuisance, He develops into an overbearing,
inflated, irascible individual, overburdening his brain to such an extent about social
equaUty, that he becomes dangerous to all with whom he comes in contact, he consti-
tutes a nuisance, of which the neighborhood is anxious to rid itself.
Another building which has been polluted by Negro tenancy is to be renovated
on May ist Either the Negro must vanish or decay sets in. Who is next ?
Misleaders of the Negro, those flamboyant, noisy, witless individuals, who, by
power of superior gall and gumption, have blustered their way into positions of promi-
nence amongst their people, wonder why this district resents their intrusion. To aUow
themselves an opportum'ty to parade their dusky persons before an audience of their
followers, these misleaders held a meeting of the Protective Circle (composed, no
doubt, of Negro roundheads), at which a varied assortment of Negro preachers,
politicians and other what nots exposed our methods and organization work. With
much comical oratory, they dangled our association before the spellbound eyes of
their sable dupes and after extreme fuming and sweating appointed about fifteen
committees to annihilate all Hyde Parkers.
m. BOMBINGS
A form of organized resistance to the coming of Negroes into new neighbor-
hoods was the bombings of their homes and the homes of real estate men,
white and Negro, who were known or supposed to have sold, leased, or rented
local property to them.
From July i, 1917, to March i, 1921, the Negro housing problem was
marked by fifty-eight bomb explosions. Two persons, both Negroes, were
killed, a number of white and colored persons were injured, and the damage
to property amounted to more than $100,000. Of these fifty-eight bombs,
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 123
thirty-two were exploded within the square bounded by Forty-first and
Sixtieth streets, Cottage Grove Avenue and State Street. With an average
of one race bombing every twenty days for three years and eight months,
the pohce and the state's attorney's office succeeded in apprehending but two
persons suspected of participation in these acts of lawlessness. One of these,
James Macheval, arrested on the complaint of C. S. Absteson, a janitor,
was released on a $500 bond. At the writing of this report, one year after the
arrest, there has been no trial. Another man was apprehended, questioned,
held under surveillance for two days by the police, and finally released.
News of threatened bombings in many cases was circulated well in advance
of the actual occurrence. Negroes were warned of the exact date on which
explosions would occur. They asked for poUce protection, and, in some
instances where police were sent beforehand, their homes were bombed, and
no arrests were made.
The persons directing these bombings did not Hmit their intimidations to
Negro residents in white neighborhoods; residences of Negroes and white
real estate men were bombed because they had sold or rented property
in these exclusive areas to Negroes, and Negro bankers' houses were bombed
because they made loans on Negro property and supported their mortgages.
These bombings increased rapidly in frequency and damaging effect.
The six months' period ended October i, 1920, witnessed as many bombings
as the entire thirty-five months preceding. Prior to 1919 there were twelve
bombings. Four of these were directed at properties merely held by Negro
real estate men as agents, two of them in Berkeley Avenue just north of
Forty-third Street, and near the lake. Five were in the 4500 block on Vincennes
Avenue, two at 4200 Wabash Avenue, and one at 4732 Indiana Avenue.
Bombing of real estate men's properties appears to have been part of a
general scheme to close the channels through which the invasion proceeded
rather than a protest of neighbors. The four explosions in the 4500 block on
Vincennes Avenue appear to have been deliberately aimed at the tenants.
This block is at the center of the neighborhood most actively opposed to the
coming in of Negroes. In January, 1919, a white and a Negro real estate
agent were bombed; in March, Jesse Binga's real estate office at 4724 State
Street and an apartment at 4041 Calumet Avenue were bombed. In April
there were two more bombings, one of a realty office. Following a pubhc
meeting on May 5 to arouse white property owners of the Hyde Park district
against Negro invasion, there were four bombings. Between January i, 1920,
and March i, 1920, there were eight bombings in eight weeks. Responsibihty
for the creation of the sentiment thus expressed was in some instances assxmied
by organizations. For example the Property Owners' Journal, in its issue
for February i, 1920, said:
Our neighborhood must continue white. This sentiment is the outgrowth of the
massmeeting of property owners and residents which was held Monday, January 19.
124 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Mr. George J. Williams furnished the climax of the meeting when he informed the
audience in terse, pithy language that "Hyde Park enjoys a reputation too splendid
as a neighborhood of white culture to allow Negroes to use it as their door mat."
In the issue of December 13, 1919, white and Negro real estate men and
owners selling property to Negroes in the district were "branded as miclean
outcasts of society to be boycotted and ostracized in every possible manner, "
and W. B. Austin, white, was accused of violating a gentleman's obligation to
his community in selling a home to a Negro. It was asserted falsely that the
house which he had sold had been used during the race riots as a "rendezvous
for Negroes who fired voUeys of revolver shots from doors and windows at
white boys in the street who, according to the testimony of neighbors, had
not attacked the premises."
On December 26 the home of J. H. Coleman, a white real estate man who
had sold a house to a Negro, was bombed. The transaction was not public,
and occupancy was not to take place for five months. On December 27 the
home of Jesse Binga, a Negro real estate man, was bombed. One week later,
on January 6, came the bombing of W. B. Austin, on the North Side.
During 1919 and 1920 committees and delegations of whites and Negroes
appealed to the chief of police, the mayor. State's Attorney Hoyne, and the
press, but nothing was done. The mayor referred these matters to his chief
of poKce. The police were unable to discover the bombers or anyone directing
them. The state's attorney, in response to appeals, emphatically defined his
duty as a prosecuting rather than an apprehending agent. All the while,
however, the bombings continued steadily; no arrests except the two mentioned
were made; and the Negro population grew to trust less and less in the interest
of the community and the public agencies of protection.
I. TYPICAL BOMBINGS
The circumstances of the bombings were investigated by the Commission,
and details of what happened in several typical cases are here presented.
Bombing of the Motley home. — In 1913 S. P. Motley, Negro, and his wife purchased
a building at 5230 Maryland Avenue through a white agent, and on March 15, 1913,
the family moved in. For four years they lived there without molestation save the
silent resentment of neighbors and open objection to the presence of Negro children
in the streets. On July i, 1917, without warning or threat, a bomb was exploded in
the vestibide of the house, and the front of the building was blown away. The
damage amounted to $1,000. Police arrived from the station at Fifty-second Street
and Lake Park Avenue ten minutes after the explosion. No dews were found and
no arrests were made. The original owner of the building was bitterly opposed to
Negroes and was a member of an organization which was seekiag to keep Negroes
out of the district.
Some time after this incident it was rumored that Motley was planning to purchase
the building adjacent. At 4:00 a.m. June 4, 1919, a dynamite bomb was exploded
under the front of the house adjacent and tore up its stone front. The neighbors
HOMES BOMBED
IN RACE CONTUCTS OVER HOUSING
JULY. 1,1917-MARCH. 1,1921
REAL ESTATE DEALER ■
WHITE ~ -O
■■ REAL ESTATE DEALER B
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 125
were in the street immediately after the explosion. No clews were found and no
arrests were made. The Motley family on this occasion was accused of inviting
another Negro family into the block. The new family in question negotiated
for its own property, and before an actual settlement had been made, received numer-
ous telephone messages and threats. It moved in, but was not bombed.
Bombing of Moses Fox's home. — Moses Fox, white, connected with a "Loop"
real estate firm, lived at 442 East Forty-fifth Street. The house was too large, and
he decided to move to smaller quarters. The buUding was sold through a real estate
firm to persons whom he did not know. On March 10, 1920, a few days after the sale,
he received a telephone call informing him that he must suffer the consequences of
selling his home to Negroes. At 7 : 30 that evening an automobile was seen to drive
slowly past his home three times, stopping each time just east of the building. On
the last trip a man alighted, and deposited a long-fuse bomb in the vestibule. The
fuse smoked for four minutes. Attracted by the smoke. Fox ran toward the front
of the house. The bomb exploded before he reached the door. It was loaded with
dynamite and contained slugs which penetrated the windows of buildings across
the street. The evening selected for the bombing was the one on which Patrolman
Edward Owens, Negro, was off duty and a white policeman was patrolling his beat.
The bombing was witnessed by Dan Jones, a Negro janitor, and Mrs. Florence
De Lavalade, a Negro tenant. The front of the building was wrecked and all the
windows shattered. Damage amounting to $1,000 was done. No arrests were
made.
Bombing of Jesse Binga's properties. — ^Jesse Binga is a Negro banker and real
estate man. His bank is at 3633 State Street, his real estate office at 4724 State
Street, and his home at 5922 South Park Avenue. He controls more than $500,000
worth of property and through his bank has made loans on Negro property and taken
over the mortgages of Negroes refused by other banks and loan agencies.
On November 12, 1919, an automobUe rolled by his realty office and a bomb
was tossed from it. It left the office in ruins. The poUce were soon on the scene,
but the car was well beyond reach by the time of their arrival. No clews to the
bombers were found, and no arrests were made. It was the opinion of the police
that white residents of the Hyde Park district resented Binga's handling of Negro
property in that district.
Twenty-one days later an automobile drew up in front of Binga's home at 5922
South Park Avenue, and its occupants put a bomb under the front steps. It failed
to explode. When the firemen arrived they found it sizzling in the slush beneath
the porch. The police declared that this was an expression of racial feeling.
Twenty-five days later the bombers reappeared and left a third bomb. It tore
up the porch of Binga's home. Again the police found that the explosion had been
caused by "racial feeling, " white men having said that "Binga rented too many flats
to Negroes in high-class residence districts." The house was repaired and police
provided to guard the house. At twelve o'clock each night the guard changed watch.
On the night of February 28 the policeman on duty until twelve o'clock left a few
minutes early, and the policeman relieving him was just a few minutes late. In this
unguarded interval an automobile swung around the corner, and as it passed the
Binga home a man leaned out and tossed a bomb into the yard. The bomb Ht in
a puddle of water and the fuse went out. It was found that the bomb had been
126 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
made of black powder, manila paper, and cotton. The explanation of the attempt
was that "his $30,000 home is in a white neighborhood."
A police guard was still watching the house on the night of June 18, 1920, when the
bombing car appeared again. On this occasion neither policeman was in sight when
the car drew up. A man alighted this time and carefully placed the bomb. The
explosion that followed almost demolished the front of the house and smashed windows
throughout the block. This last explosion damaged the home to the extent of $4,000.
Binga offered a reward of $1,000 for the apprehension of those guilty of these repeated
acts of lawlessness.
On November 23 Binga was bombed again. This time the bomb damaged his
neighbors more seriously than it did Binga's property. No clews were found and no
one was arrested.
Bombing of R. W. Woodfolk's home. — R. W. WoodfoUs, Negro banker and real
estate dealer, purchased a flat at 4722 Calumet Avenue. It was an investment of
the Merchants and Peoples' Bank, 3201 South State Street, which he controlled.
The building was occupied by one white and four Negro families. On the evening
of February i, 1920, a person with keys to the building locked the tenants in then:
apartments, sprung the locks of the doors leading to the street, and planted a bomb
in the hallway. The explosion ripped up the hall and stairway, tore away the brick
work around the entrance, and shattered the windows of adjacent buildings. The
damage was estimated at $1,000. No arrests were made.
Bombing of the Clarke horns. — Mrs. Mary Byron Clarke, Negro, purchased through
W. B. Austin, a white banker and real estate man, properties at 4404 and 4406 Grand
Boulevard, vacant for a year at the time of purchase, and previously used by prosti-
tutes. A real estate dealer herself, she had frequently been assisted by Austin in
financing her transactions, one of which was the sale to Negroes of Isaiah Temple^
a Jewish synagogue at Forty-fifth Street and Vincennes Avenue.
The dwellings were renovated and she moved into one of them; the other she
rented. During the riot of July, 1919, her home was attacked by a mob. When the
police arrived in response to a call by the Clarkes, they battered in the doors at the
demand of the mob and arrested Mr. and Mrs. Clarke. They were acquitted. On
January 5, 1920, the house was bombed. The explosion caused $3,360 worth of
damage. The building was again bombed February 12, 1920, this time with a dyna-
mite bomb thrown through the plate-glass door in the hallway from a passing auto-
mobile. The stairway was knocked down and large holes blown in the wall. The
police came, found no dews, and made no arrests. At the request of Mrs. Clarke
a special policeman was detailed to guard the property.
Numerous threatening letters and telephone calls followed, all of which were
reported to the police. There were threats of another bombing if she did not sell,
and there were visits from representatives of real estate interests in Hyde Park
making offers.
Tuesday evening, April 13, 1920, a third bomb was exploded in spite of the
presence of the two special policemen. The bomb was thrown from the premises of
Frederick R. Bamheisd, an immediate neighbor, a tdephone wire deflected it, and
it landed near the Clarke garage.
Mrs. Clarke made a statement concerning this bombing before the Commission
in which she said:
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 127
"Wednesday [the day following the third bombing] we got a letter saying 'move
out or sell, there is nothing else for you to do. We missed you last night but we will
get you the next time. We are determined.' A letter prior to that stated if we did
not get out they would 'get our hides.'
"There has been some sinister influence brought to bear on the insurance company
since the riot and since the first bombing. We have had our house insured against
bombing since the first bombing. The first damage of about $500 they paid and
canceled the insurance on 4404 Grand Boulevard. The second bomb did damage
to the extent of $3,360. They wrote saying they would cancel it, subject however
to pending loss. There was a clause calling for settlement within sixty days. After
sixty days we would have to enter suit to get it. The sixty days have passed, and there
has been no attempt to settle. Some of the glass has been replaced. They have
accepted it, and there has been no disposition on their part to settle.
"Berry, Johnston, & Peters, the men with whom we have had the most business
dealings, have insisted that we sell the place. Mr. Peters said last week he could
get a buyer from the Hyde Park-Kenwood Association people, also said if any indebt-
edness remained on the contract or deeds, that the money must first be paid to them,
then to us. We have been careful not to let any indebtedness, even for ten days,
come against 4406."
Bombing of Crede Hubbard's home. — Following is part of Hubbard's statement
to the police immediately after the bombing of his home at 4331 Vincennes Avenue
on the night of April 25, 1920:
"The day on which I had planned to move, a man who said he was Mr. Day, of
the Hyde Park and Kenwood Association, telephoned me. He said : ' I hear you have
acquired property and you are dissatisfied with it; we can take it off your hands —
reheve you of it.' I replied that I didn't think I needed any help. He asked, 'What
do you expect to do ?' I said, ' I expect to move into it or sell it if I can get my price.'
I moved on Tuesday and Wednesday he called in person. He said, 'I called to find
out if you want us to sell or handle your property for you.' I told him I thought I
could handle it, and that I was not anxious to sell but would consider selling if I could
get an offer of say $11,000. He replied that his buyers were not able to go that far.
He continued, 'The point is, I represent the Hyde Park-Kenwood Association. We
have spent a lot of money and we want to keep this district white.' I asked him
why they had not thought of buying the property before and told him that the house
had been for sale for eight months. He repUed that it was a lamentable fact that
they had overlooked it. I told him that I heard the Hyde Park Association had a
$100,000 slush fund out of which $100 was paid for each bombing. He said he would
have some of his buyers come in and look over the property. Shortly afterward,
Mr. Stephen D. Seman and another man came and represented themselves as buyers.
They looked over the inside of the house. I only carried them through the haUs.
Mr. Seman said, 'You only paid $8,500 for this property.' I told him that he had
been misinformed, I had paid $9,000. He said, 'I wiU give you $9,500 for it.' I
refused. As they were leaving he added, 'You had better consider our offer.' Soon
after that a man named Casson, real estate man, called. I would not let him in.
When he asked me my price I told him $11,500.
"A week later a delegation from the Hyde Park Association called. The spokes-
man began: 'I am Mr. Austin. You understand the nature of our business with
128 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
you, I suppose.' .... I told the chief clerk of the office of the Northwestern Railroad
to inform you that we were coming to see you. We are the Hyde Park-Kenwood
Association and you wDl imderstand that you are not welcome in this district. We
want to know what can be done.' I replied that I didn't know what could be done
unless they wanted to buy; otherwise I expected to live there, and my price was
$11,500. They continued, 'Do you suppose if I moved into a black district where
I wasn't wanted, that I would want to Uve there ?' I said, 'If you had bought property
there and liked the property, I don't see why you should move.' They said, 'Why
do you persist ia wanting to live here when you know you are not wanted ?' I said,
'I have bought property here and I am expecting to Uve here.' Then they filed out of
the door, and one of the members stated, 'You had better consider this propo-
sition.'
"In the office of the Northwestern Railroad, Mr. Shirley caUed me in and read
a letter to me which he had received from Mr. Austin. 'Murphy, his name is,'
he said, 'I know him fairly well, and I simply want to make an answer to the letter.
Don't think I am trying to itifluence you one way or the other. This is the letter:
it goes about like this: "Crede Hubbard has purchased a three-flat building at 4332
Vincennes Avenue. Property values are always shot to hell when Negroes move in.
Use whatever influence you have to induce him to sell and find out for us his lowest
figures."' He added, 'Don't think I am trying to brow-beat you into selling this
property.'"
"On the following Sunday night on my way back to Milwaukee, I read in
the paper that my house had been bombed. My family was at home, my two boys
sleeping about ten feet from the place that was most seriously damaged. The bomb
was placed inside the vestibule. The girl there heard a taxicab drive up about
twenty-five minutes to twelve and stop for a few minutes and start off again. About
six minutes after the taxicab stopped, the explosion came, and in about five minutes
there were not less than 300 people on the street in front of the place asking questions.
There were a number of plain-clothes men in the crowd. I told my story to the
chief of police and to a sergeant of the police and they said it was evidence enough to
warrant the arrest of the officials of the Association named, but they also thougbt
that it would do no good 'The thing we will have to do is to catch somebody
in the act, sweat him and make him tell who his backers are.'
"The police believe that the actual bombing is being done by a gang of yoimg
rough-necks who will stop at nothing, and they expect a pretty serious encounter if
they are interfered with. A big automobile is being shadowed now by the police.
It is used by this bunch of young fellows under suspicion, and it is thought that they
keep the car well loaded with ammunition, and whoever attacks them must expect
trouble. There are four plain-dothes men on guard in this district now. The
police told me to get anything I want from a Mauser to a machine gun and sit back
in the dark, and when anybody comes up to my hallway acting suspiciously to crack
down on him and ask him what he was there for afterwards."
Bombing of the Harrison home. — Mrs. Gertrude Harrison, Negro, living alone
with her children, contracted to buy a house at 4708 Grand Boulevard. In March,
1919, she moved in. She immediately received word that she had committed a
grave error. She and her children were constantly subjected to the insulting remarks
both of her inomediate neighbors and passers-by.
DAMAGE DONE BY A BOMB
This bomb was thrown into a building at 3.365 Indiana Avenue, occupied by Negroes. A
six-year-old Negro child was killed.
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 129
On May 16, 1919, a Negro janitor informed her that neighbors were planning
to bomb her house. She called up the Forty-eighth Street police station and told of
the threatened danger. The officer answering the telephone characterized her report
as "idle talk" and promised to send a man to investigate. The regular patrolman
came in and promised to "keep an eye on the property," but there were ten blocks
in his beat. A special guard was secured and paid by Mrs. Harrison when it was
learned that one would not be furnished by the poUce.
The following night, May 17, her house was bombed whUe the patrolman was
"punching his box" two blocks away and the special watchman was at the rear.
A detail of police was then provided both at the front and rear. The following
night a bomb was thrown on the roof of the house from the window of a vacant flat
in the adjoining apartment house. The flat from which the bomb was thrown had
been unlocked to admit the bombers and locked again. The poHce failed to question
either the persons living in the apartment or those leaving it immediately after the
explosion.
The first explosion blew out the front door and shattered the glass in the front
of the house. The bomb was filled with gravel and bits of lead. The second was of
similar character, but did not do as much damage. No arrests were made.
In aU these fifty-eight bombings the police have been able to accomplish
nothing definite. Practically every incident involved an automobile, descrip-
tions of which were furnished by witnesses. The precautions taken to prevent
bombings, even if they were well planned and systematically carried out,
failed lamentably.
2. REACTION OF WHITES IN HYDE PARK
Increasing frequency of bombings, failure of the police to make arrests,
and the apparent association of these acts of open violence with the white
residents of Hyde Park drew out explanations.
Pastors of churches in the district who, it had been charged, helped to
give circulation to printed sentiments of the organized opposition to the
"invasion" were strong in their repudiation. The menace to law and order
was definitely recognized and the public given to understand that neither the
pastor nor his congregation had encouraged acts of lawlessness in any manner.
In a statement to a Commission investigator, one of these pastors said, "I am
not in sympathy with the methods and am very doubtful about the aims of
the Property Owners' Association and have, therefore, been unable to join
them or indorse their efforts."
A local paper, the Real Estate News, published a long article in February,
1920, on "Solving Chicago's Race Problem." It was directed at South Side
property owners and carried a stern warning "against perils of boycott and
terrorism being promoted by local protective associations." Referring to
the bombing outrages, this paper, under the heading "Danger in Boycotts
and Bombs," said:
In Kenwood and Hyde Park, particularly, a number of "protective associations"
have been formed. Property owners have been urged to join these bodies, which.
130 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
without attempt at concealment, advocate a boycott against all persons of a certain
race. At meetings of these groups there has been open advocacy of violence. There
has been incendiary talk. Bombs and buUets have been discussed, and speakers
talking thus have been applauded. There have been repeated acts of violence.
Night bombing of Negro homes and apartments has taken place. Bombiag and
shooting is increasing in frequency.
The time has come, we believe, for a word of solemn warning to all South Side
property owners. It is: Keep out of those associations. If you are now in, get out!
For you are in great danger of the penitentiary! You are in grave peril of losing
your property by damage suits!
Another excerpt, under the heading "Perils of 'Protective' Organizations,"
said:
No one can justly criticize men for forming organizations to protect or advance
their own interests lawfully. Property owners ought to unite wherever practicable
for proper and lawful purposes beneficial to themselves. For such unions operate
to the welfare of all.
Recently, however, a number of men have joined in forming and promoting
organizations on the South Side which are perilous to themselves and to every property
owner who joins them. Owners of real estate should be the last men in the world
to get mixed up in movements involving violence, threats, intimidations, or boycotts.
Because they are responsible. Their wealth cannot be concealed. Judgments
against them are collectible.
Under the heading "Drastic Laws Forbid Conspiracies":
The law of conspiracy is drastic. Conspiracy is an association together of
persons for the purpose of doing an unlawful thing in an unlawful way, or a lawful
thing in an unlawful way, or an unlawful thing in a lawful way. Under the law,
all persons in a conspiracy are equally guilty. One need not throw a bomb, or even
know of the intent of throwing a bomb, to be found guilty. The act of one, no matter
how irresponsible, is the act of aU.
Any association formed in Chicago for the purpose of, or having among its aims,
refusal to sell, lease or rent property to any citizen of a certain race, is an unlawful
association. Every act of such an association for advancement of such an aim is
an act of conspiracy, punishable criminally and civilly in the District Court of the
United States. And every member of such an association is equally guilty with
every other member. If one member hires a bomber, or a thug who commits murder
in pursuance of the aims of the association, all the organization may be found guilty
of conspiracy to destroy property or to commit murder, as the case may be.
This entire article was widely circulated in the disturbed neighborhoods
by the Protective Circle, an organization of Negroes, 25,000 copies being mailed
to residents of Hyde Park.
Residents of the district, stirred by the succession of bombings, began to
protest. The paper of the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Associa-
tion reflected this feeling in a statement declaring that the Association had no
connection with the bombings, and that its president was considering the
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 131
advisability of assisting the authorities in apprehending these lawless individ-
uals. On another occasion, this paper took pains to explain that the bombing of
George A. Hyers' property on March 5 was an outgrowth of labor troubles
and not of a property owners' organization recently formed in this community.
At a meeting of the General Committee of the Property Owners' Association
the following resolution was unanimously adopted:
Whereas, Our attention has been called to various explosions of bombs in our
neighborhood at the houses of colored people living in this vicinity, and
Whereas, WhUe we are anxious to persuade these people to move from this
locality, we are opposed to violence of every description, therefore, be it
Resolved, That we condemn the action of anyone resorting to throwing of bombs
or other methods not in accordance with reason, law or justice.
The attention of the city was directed to these unlawful happenings and
protests from both white and Negro individuals made themselves heard.
The bombings, however, did not abate in frequency. Neither were the poUce
any more successful in locating their sources.
3. REACTION OE NEGROES
From the beginning Negroes were outspoken in their indignation over the
bombings, but their protests had no apparent effect in checking the outrages.
The attacks, however, have made the Negroes firm in their stand. Mrs.
Clarke was bombed four times; she still Uves in the property and declares
that she will not be driven out. Jesse Binga has been bombed six times but
states he will not move. Only two of the forty Negro famiUes bombed have
moved; the others have made repairs, secured private watchmen or themselves
kept vigil for night bombers, and still occupy the properties.
Following the bombing of Jesse Binga on June 18, 1920, the Chicago Daily
News quoted him as saying to a poUceman, "This is the limit; I'm going."
When his attention was called to the statement he promptly replied:
Statements relative to my moving are all false. My idea of this bombing of my
house is that it is an effort to retard the Einga State Bank which will take over the
mortgages of colored people now buying property against which effort is being made
to foreclose. I wiU not run. The race is at stake and not myself. If they can make
me move they wDl have accomplished much of their aim because they can say, "We
made Jesse Binga move; certainly you'll have to move, " to all of the rest. If they
can make the leaders move, what show wUl the smaller buyers have ? Such headlines
are efforts to intimidate Negroes not to purchase property and to scare some of them
back South.
In February a group of Negroes formed themselves into a body known as
the Protective Circle of Chicago, the purpose of which, as stated in its constitu-
tion, was "to combat, through legal means, the lawlessness of the Kenwood
and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association and by organized effort to bring
pressure to bear on city authorities to force them to apprehend those persons
who have bombed the homes of twenty-one Negroes."
132 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
A mass meeting was held February 29, 1920, with 3,000 Negroes present.
A popular appeal for funds for the purposes of this organization raised $1,000.
Attacks were directed against the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners'
Association. A representative of the Protective Circle said in part:
The Hyde Park Property Owners' Association is not a new thing. It is more
than eighteen years old. Eighteen years ago they proposed fourteen points as a
platform for their Association. The thirteenth point was that they would keep out
undesirables. AH Negroes were classed as undesirables. Ten years ago Dr. Jenifer,
a Negro minister, appeared before the Association and severely criticized the organiza-
tion for its un-American policies. It is just recently that this organization has shown
its hand openly, and the things that they have said and done are dangerously near to
UlegaUty. I have in my files this statement taken from a stenographic report of one
of their meetings, made by the president of the Association: "If Negroes do not get
out of Hyde Park, we will get Bolsheviks to bomb them out." The bombers of the
homes of Negroes have been allowed to get away unpunished. Judge Gary hanged
numbers of anarchists in the Haymarket riot for very much less comph'city in bomb
outrages than these men are guilty of. Hatred can never be counteracted by hatred.
We cannot put any stop to the bombings of Negro homes by going out and bombing
homes of white persons.
The Negro press severely condenaned the bombings, and the Negro popula-
tion in general felt that the apathy of city authorities and even the influential
public was responsible for continuance of the outrages. Protests were sent
to the governor of the state. The mayor, chief of police, and state's attorney
were persistently importuned to stop the destruction of Negroes' property
and remove the menace to their lives. Negroes pointed out, for example,
that the authorities had shown ability to apprehend criminals, even tbose
suspected of bomb-throwing. They cited the bombing of the home of a profes-
sional white "gunman," when eleven suspected bombers were caught in the
dragnet of the state's attorney within thirty hoiurs. Yet in fifty-eight bombings
of Negro homes only two suspects were ever arrested.
In March, 1920, a Commission from the Chicago Church Federation
Council sent a delegation to Mayor Thompson, Chief of Police Garrity, and
State's Attorney Hoyne, to demand action on the bombing of Negroes' homes.
Prominent white and colored men comprised this delegation. A prominent
Negro, testif3dng before the Commission, said that he, with other Negroes,
both from the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, and from other organizations, had carried their grievances
to city oflScials. He said:
We have been to the mayor's office, we have been to the state's attorney's office
we have sent representatives to both these offices, and nothing has been done —
possibly something is being done, but nothing of great moment. I think that the
colored people feel that they are so insecure in their physical rights that rather than
take any chance they're going out and paying whatever the charge is for insurance
against bombing.
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 133
Another delegation of Negroes in June, 1919, twice attempted to register
a complaint with the mayor against bomb outrages. The mayor's secretary,
however, refused them an audience with the mayor.
The editors of local daily papers have also been visited by mixed white
and Negro delegations in an endeavor to arouse public opinion.
The effect of these delegations and protests has been small. One joint
conference with the mayor, chief of poUce, and state's attorney brought out
the information that it was beyond the state's attorney's province to make
arrests. The mayor, after some discussion, instructed Chief of Police Garrity to
do what he could toward putting a stop to the bombing of Negroes' homes. The
chief of poUce, after explaining the shortage of patrolmen, said he would do so.
The bombing question began to figure in local poHtics. Charges were
made before the primary election of September, 1920, that the city administra-
tion had not given Negroes the protection it had promised. The matter of
apprehending the "nefarious bomb plotters" was included in the platforms
of Negroes running for office, and in those of white candidates seeking Negro
votes.
The Commission had neither authority nor facilities for accompUshing
what all pubhc agencies had signally failed to do. It could, however, and did,
go over the trail of the bombers and collect information which shows that the
sentiment aroused in the contested neighborhoods was a factor in encouraging
actual violence. Whatever antagonisms there were before the agitation were
held in 'restraint, even though Negroes were already neighbors. Other dis-
tricts, like Woodlawn and sections of the North Side, undergoing almost
identical experiences as those of Hyde Park, have had no violence; the absence
of stimulated sentiment is as conspicuous as the absence of violence. In the
Hyde Park district, between Thirty-ninth and Forty-seventh streets and State
Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, four-fifths of the bombings occurred.
All but three of those happening outside the district were against real estate
men accused of activities affecting the Hyde Park District. It seemed,
especially in the first bombings, that the bombers had information about
business transactions which the general public could not ordinarily get. Houses
were bombed in numbers of cases long before their occupancy by Negroes.
Each of the bombings was apparently planned, and the opportune moment
came after long vigil and, as it would seem, after dehberately setting the
stage. The first bombing of Binga does not appear to have been the result
of resentment of neighbors in the vicinity of his home, for it was his oflSce on
State Street that was bombed. His office is in a neighborhood around which
there is no contest.
4. OTHER MEANS EMPLOYED TO KEEP OUT NEGROES
The Grand Boulevard Property Owners' Association officially decided
that its object should be "the acquisition, management, improvement and dis-
position, including leasing, sub-leasing and sale of residential property to both
134 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
white and colored people within the said district heretofore described." This
district was to include the area from Thirty-fifth to Sixty-third streets, and
from the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad tracks to Lake Michigan.
In August, 1920, the manager of the Association cited an instance in which
it had functioned. On Vernon Avenue a white man had sold property direct
to Negroes. The next-door neighbor had arranged a similar sale to potential
Negro buyers. The neighbor next to him, a widow, loath to lose her home,
appealed to the Association. After a conference with the possible Negro
buyers, their money was returned to them, the Association purchased the house
in question, and the whole matter was thus amicably arranged.
During April, 1920, inquiries were made by the Commission into the unrest
caused by rumors that 800 Negro families intended to move into Hyde Park.
It developed that May i, the customary "moving day," was feared both by
whites in Hyde Park and by Negroes in and out of Hyde Park. Negroes
living there feared that an attempt would be made to oust them by canceling
or refusing to renew their leases, and whites thought Negroes might get posses-
sion of some of the properties vacated on that date. The Commission found,
however, only eighteen instances where leases were canceled on houses occupied
by Negroes who were having difficulty in finding other places to Uve.
In the summer of 1920 the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners'
Association stated that sixty-eight Negro famihes had been moved through
cancellation of leases and mortgage foreclosures.
Incidental to the general plan of opposition to the entrance of Negroes in
Hyde Park was the sending of threatening letters. For example, in August,
1919, a leading Negro rea estate agent and banker received this pen-printed
notice by maU:
Headquarters of the White Hands
Territory, Michigan Ave. to Lake Front
You are the one who helped cause this riot by encouraging Negroes to move into
good white neighborhoods and you know the results of your work. This trouble
has only begun and we advise you to use your influence to get Negroes to move out
of these neighborhoods to Black Belt where they belong and in conclusion we advise
you to get off South Park Ave. yourself. Just take this as a warning. You know
what comes next.
Respect.
Warning Com.
This man's home and oflSce have been bombed a number of times. Efforts
were made to buy out individual Negroes who had settled in the district, as
well as to cause renters to move out. There are numerous incidents of this
nature, with indications of many others. A Negro woman who was living in
the district, told one of the Commission's investigators that she and her
husband had formerly lived in the 3800 block of Lake Park Avenue. White
neighbors caused them so much trouble that they had moved and bought the
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 135
apartment house in which they are now hving, renting out the second and third
flats. Ahnost immediately white people began to call and inquire whether
she was the janitress, or whether she was renting or buying the place. When
she gave evasive answers, letters began to arrive by mail. One letter was
slipped under the door at night. These letters informed her that she was pre-
venting the sale of the adjoining house because she would not sell and no white
person would live next door to her. She was advised that it would be best
for her to answer and declare her intentions. Two white women called and
offered her $1,500 more than she had paid for the property. She refused
and a few days later she received a letter demanding an immediate answer,
to the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association.
Later three white men in overseas uniforms inquired as to the ownership
of the property, asking if she was the janitress and if she knew who the owner
was. She answered in the negative. One of the men tore down a "For Sale"
sign on the adjoining property, and another informed her that it was the inten-
tion to turn the neighborhood back to white people and that all Negroes
must go.
This woman is the president of a neighborhood protective league, including
the Negroes in several of the blocks thereabouts. She received a letter from
the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association asking the pur-
poses and intentions of this league.
This woman also reported that a man had been going about the neighbor-
hood under the pretext of making calling cards, advising Negroes to seU out
and leave the neighborhood, as it was better not to stay where they were not
wanted. Another white man who had been about the neighborhood selling
wearing apparel, told her that two Negro famihes in the neighborhood would
be bombed. She inquired how he knew this and was told to wait and see.
Within two weeks these bombings had taken place.
IV. TREND OF THE NEGRO POPULATION
In considering the expansion of Negro residential areas, the most important
is the main South Side section where more of the Negro population Uves.
This group is hemmed in on the north by the business district and on the
west by overcrowded areas west of Wentworth Avenue, called in this report
"hostile." During the ten years 1910-20 business houses and light manu-
facturing plants were moving south from the downtown district, pushing ahead
of them the Negro population between Twelfth and Thirty-first streets. At
the same time the Negro population was expanding into the streets east of
Wabash Avenue. This extension was stopped by Lake Michigan, about
eight blocks east. Negro families then began filtering into Hyde Park, immedi-
ately to the south.
In 191 7 the Chicago Urban League foimd that Negroes were then living on
Wabash Avenue as far south as Fifty-fifth street east of State Street, where
136 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
they had moved from the district west of State Street. From Thirty-first
to Thirty-ninth streets, on Wabash Avenue, Negroes had been living from
nine to eleven years, and the approximate percentage of Negroes by blocks
ranged from 95 to 100; from Thurty-ninth Street to Forty-seventh Street
they had been hving from one to five years and averaged 50 per cent. The
movement had been almost entirely from the west and north.
On Indiana Avenue, from Thirty-first to Forty-second streets, a similar
trend was revealed. In the 3100 block, Negroes had been Uving for eight
years, in the 3200 block for fourteen years; in the more southerly blocks their
occupancy had been much briefer, ranging down to five months. In the
most northerly of these blocks Negroes numbered 90 per cent and in the most
southerly only 2 per cent.
On Prairie Avenue, farther east, two Negro families bought homes in the
3100 block in 1911, but the majority of the Negroes had come in since 1916.
The percentage of Negroes in that block was 50. From Thirty-second to Thirty-
ninth Street the blocks were found to have more than 90 per cent Negroes.
One family had been there five years and the average residence was one and
one-half years. No Negroes were found from Fortieth to Forty-fourth Street
on Prairie Avenue. There were two families in the 4500 block, and none south
of that.
On Forest Avenue, from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth Street, 75 per cent
of the famihes were Negroes and had lived there less than six yeais.
On Calumet Avenue, the next street east of Prairie, Negroes had begun
to Uve within four years. The population was 75 per cent Negro from Thirty-
first to Thirty-ninth Street. None Uve south of Thirty-ninth Street, except
at the corner, where they had been hving for five months.
A similar situation was found on Rhodes Avenue, stiU farther east, from
Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth Street. Negroes had Hved in Vincennes Avenue,
the next street east, less than two years, and in Cottage Grove Avenue, still
farther east less than one year.
South Park Avenue and its continuation, Grand Boulevard (south of
Thirty-fifth Street) was the most recent street into which Negroes had moved
in large nimibers. This had occurred within the years 1915-17. The first
Negro families had moved into the 3400 block less than four years previously.
The percentage of Negroes between Thirty-first and Thirty-fifth streets was
less than 50. Within five months two Negro famihes had moved into the
hitherto exclusively white 3500 block.
Few Negroes had moved from east of State Street to west of that street.
V. OUTLYING NEIGHBORHOODS
The Commission's investigation being confined to the city of Chicago,
the growing Negro colonies in such suburbs as Evanston and Glencoe were not
studied, but attention was given to two southwestern outlying neighborhoods
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THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 137
in the east part of Morgan Park, just inside the city limits, and the village of
Robbins, wholly Negro, just outside.
1. MORGAN PARK
In 1910, 126 Negroes lived in Morgan Park, with a total population of
5,269. In 1920 the area had been incorporated in the city of Chicago, and
there were 695 Negroes in a total population of 7,780 occupying approximately
the same area.
In its early days Morgan Park was the site of a theological seminary,
which in 1892 became part of the University of Chicago. The first Negroes
there were servants, mostly from the South, working in the households of the
professors. The colony remained, and its more recent increase was due in
considerable measure to the influx of well-to-do Negroes from farther north in
Chicago, many of whom bought houses. In some cases Negroes in congested
Negro residential areas sold out to Negroes arriving in the migration and
re-estabUshed themselves in much better dwellings and surroundings in Morgan
Park.
Less prosperous Negroes also came, despite the feeling of some home
owners that too great an influx of that type would injure property values and
render the neighborhood less desirable. Many of these work in the South
Chicago steel mills and the shops at PuUman. Some work in the Stock Yards.
A nmnber of Negroes of Morgan Park are employed at the Chicago City
HaU. Some are porters on PuUman cars. Only a small nimiber are laborers.
Many of the women sew or work as car cleaners and seem reluctant to do
housework even at day wages.
Physically Morgan Park is attractive with comfortable homes and large
grounds. Several churches, a number of schools, and an attractive park all
add to the desirability of the place as a "home town." The lots are deep,
affording plenty of space for gardens, and many vacant lots are cultivated.
The opportunity for garden patches is an attraction for many Negroes. There
are two Negro churches, Methodist and Baptist, and a Colored Men's Improve-
ment Association which has provided a social hall for the Negro population.
School facilities are inadequate, and the buildings are old and overcrowded.
Because of this congestion, it becomes necessary for children in the sixth and
higher grades to go three miles to a school on Western Avenue. About twenty
Negroes attend the high school. In the Esmond Street school approximately
25 per cent of the children are Negroes. The Negroes have repeatedly requested
enlarged school facilities. They want a new building conveniently situated
for their children.
The white people of Morgan Park are not unfriendly toward their Negro
neighbors, though there seems to be a common understanding that Negroes
must not Uve west of Vincennes Road, which bisects the town from northeast
to southwest. A Negro once bought a house across the line but foxmd he
138 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
was so unwelcome that he promptly sold again. More recently the owner of a
three-story brick flat building rented to Negroes the twenty flats above his
stores. A protest was made by both white and Negro house owners, so that
he was forced to eject the Negro tenants.
The demand for homes is shown in the numbers of Negroes who go to
Morgan Park on Sundays by automobile, street car, and train. In the spring
of 1920 a number of houses were being erected for Negro occupancy in what
is known in Morgan Park as "No Man's Land," east of Vincennes Road from
109th to 112th streets. This swampy tract of land was being reclaimed.
Streets had been surveyed and laid out, though with httle paving. Water,
light, and gas were available, and some efiorts at drainage had been made,
leaving some stagnant pools. Other plans involved the building of eighty
five-room bungalows by a Chicago contractor. Six of these were under con-
struction at the time of the investigator's visit, and five had been sold, corner-lot
houses at $4,550, houses on inside lots at $4,330.
Morgan Park Negroes appear to be progressing financially. An officer
of a local trust and savings bank said that they met their obligations promptly,
only occasionally defaulting or suffering foreclosure and then only because of
illness, death, or loss of employment. The same officer said savings accounts
of Nc^oes were increasing in number, though smaU in amount.
Whites and Negroes maintain a friendly attitude. During the 1919 riots
a number of conferences took place between Negroes and white people of
Morgan Park. The Negroes kept rather close to their own neighborhood,
and the only difficulty the police had was in controlling rowdy white boys.
Yoimger children of the two races play together in the school yards. A
teacher in the Esmond Street school declared that no distinction was made
between Negroes and whites in that school. It was noted, however, that
when games were played, this teacher directed the little Negroes to take Utde
Negro girls as partners. Some prejudice is discernible among whites in the
community, but there is an evident desire to be fair and to give the Negroes
every reasonable opportunity to exemplify good citizenship so long as they
do not move from their own into the white neighborhoods.
Those familiar with the Morgan Park settlement believe that it offers
unusual inducements as a home community for Negroes. The contractor who
is already building for Negroes there has confidence in the venture. He has
dealt before with Negroes and found them satisfactory clients.
2. ROBBINS
This village is the only exclusively Negro community near Chicago with
Negroes in all village offices.
Robbins is not attractive physically. It is not on a car line and there is no
pretense of paved streets, or even sidewalks. The houses are homemade, in most
cases by labor mornings, nights, and holidays, after or before the day's wage-
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 139
earning. Tar paper, roofing paper, homemade tiles, hardly seem sufficient to shut
out the weather; older houses, complete with windows, doors, porches, fences,
and gardens, indicate that some day these shelters will become real houses.
In 1920 the village took out its incorporation papers, and while there are some
who regret this independence and talk of asking Blue Island to annex it, in
the main the citizens are proud of their village and certain of its future. There
are 380 people aU told, men, women, and children, hving in something more
than seventy houses. It is a long mile down the road to the street car, tut
daily men and women trudge away to their work, taking with them the feeling
of home ownership, of a place for the children to play unmolested, of friends
and neighbors.
These men and women find many kinds of work in the neighboring
towns — at the miUs, on the raiboads, in the factories. Many of the women
work in the factory of Libby, McNeil & Libby. Their wages go into payments
for their homes. Men and women together are living as pioneer famihes
lived — ^working and sacrificing to feel the independence of owning a bit of
ground and their own house.
C. THE NEGRO COMMUNITY
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE NEGRO COMMXTNITY
Negroes have been Uving in Chicago since it was founded. In fact, Jean
Baptiste Point de Saible, a San Domingan Negro, was the first settler and in
1790 built the first house, a rude hut on the north bank of the Chicago River
near what is now the Michigan Boulevard Bridge.
There are records of Negroes owning property in Chicago as earlyas 1837, the
year of its incorporation as a city. In 1844 there were at least five Negro prop-
erty owners and in 1847 at least ten. Their property was in the original first and
second wards of the city, one on Lake Street, others on Madison, Clark, and
Harrison, and Fifth Avenue. In 1848 the first Negro church property was
purchased at the corner of Jackson and Buffalo streets, indicating the presence
of the first colony of Negroes. In 1850 the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law
caused many to flee for safety to Canada, many of the property owners dispos-
ing of their holdings at a great loss. In 1854 Negroes held two pieces of church
property in the same general locality. Although the great majority Uved on
Clark and Dearborn streets north of Harrison Street, there was a tendency
among the property-owning class to invest in outl37ing property. Some of
them bought property as far south as what is now Thirty-third Street.
The year of the Great Fire, 1871, Negroes owned four pieces of church
property. That fire stopped at Harrison Street and did not consume all
of the Negro settlement. A second large fire in 1874 spread northeast and
bmrned 812 buildings over an area of forty-seven acres. With the rebuilding
of the city they were pushed southward to make room for the business
district.
140 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
In 1900 the most congested area of Negro residence, called the "Black
Belt, " was a district thirty-one blocks long and four blocks wide, extending
from Harrison Street on the north to Thirty-ninth Street on the south, between
Wabash and Wentworth avenues. Although other colonies had been started
in other parts of the city, notably the West Side, at least 50 per cent of the
1900 Negro population of 30,150 lived in this area. As this main area of Negro
residence grew, the proportion of Negroes to the total Negro population living
iii/it increased until in 1920 it contained 90 per cent of the Negroes of the city.
II. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE NEGRO COMMUNITY
In the discussion of race contacts attention is called to the peculiar con-
ditions which compel Negroes of the city to develop many of their own institu-
tions and agencies. Partly from necessity and partly from choice, they have
established their own churches, business enterprises, amusement places, and
newspapers. Living and associating for the most part together, meeting in
the same centers for face-to-face relations, trusting to their own physicians,
lawyers, and ministers, a compact community with its own fairly definite
interests and sentiments has grown up.
The institutions within the Negro community that have been developed
to aid it in maintaining itself and promoting its own welfare, are of four general
types: (i) commercial and industrial enterprises; (2) organizations for social
intercomrse; (3) religious organizations; (4) agencies for civic and social
betterment.
I. COMMERCIAL AND INDTJSTRIAI, ENTERPRISES
Commercial and industrial establishments conducted by Negroes are
Usted by Ford S. Black in his yearly Bltie Book, which serves as a directory
of Negro activities. They increased from 1,200 in 1919 to 1,500 in 1920.
The compilation Usts 651 on State Street, the main thoroughfare, 549 on
principal cross streets, and more than 300 on other streets. The increase is
strikingly shown in the following figures: In 1918 Negro business places on
Thirty-first Street numbered nine and seventy-one in 1920; on Thirty-fifth
Street there were forty-seven in 1918 and seventy-seven in 1920. On Cottage
Grove Avenue, Negroes have only recently established themselves in large
numbers, yet between Twenty-eighth and Forty-fifth streets there are fifty-
seven Negro business places, including nine groceries, three drug-stores, and
two undertaking establishments.
A partial list of business places as listed in Black's Blue Book is given:
Art stores
14 Barber shops
211
Automobile schools and repair
Baths
2
shops
10 Blacksmith shops
6
Bakeries, wholesale and retail
13 Book and stationery stores
6
Banks
2 Chiropodist
29
JUJ^^'iS^ "^
OLIVET BAPTIST CHURCH
The largest Negro church in Chicago (old building), at Twenty-ninth and Dearborn streets
ST. MARK'S M.E. CHURCH
Located at Fiftieth Street and Wabash Avenue, built by Negroes
OLIVET BAPTIST CHURCH
The largest Negro church in Chicago, larger and more modern building, Thirty-first Street and
South Park Avenue, purchased recently by Negroes.
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO
141
Cleaning, dyeing, and repairing
Music and musical instruments
16
establishments
68
Newspapers and magazines
13
Clothing stores
8
Musicians and music teachers
66
Decorators
12
Notions
2S
Dressmaking shops
32
Optometrists
4
Drug-stores
31
Orchestras
1
Electricians and locksmiths
9
Photographers
4
Employment agencies
IS
Plumbers
4
Express and storage offices
71
Printers
20
Fish markets
7
Public stenographers
6
Florists
5
Real estate offices
52
Furnace and stove repairing
6
Restaurants
87
Groceries and delicatessens
119
Schools
4
Hairdressing parlors
108
Shoemaking and repairing shops
33
Hotels
II
Shoe-shining parlors
26
Ice-cream and confectionery stores
7
Sign painters
4
Insurance companies
3
Soft-drink parlors
II
Jewelers
S
Tailors
62
Laundries
2
Toilet articles
10
Medicine specialists
9
Undertaking estabhshments
21
Millinery shops
IS
Vending machines
3
2. ORGANIZATIONS FOR SOCIAL INTERCOURSE
Various organizations for social intercourse and mutual helpfulness have
developed in the Negro community. Some are local lodges or branches of
national organizations, and others are purely local and independent. Some are
simply for social intercourse, and others have in addition benefit features,
professional interests, etc. Frequent reference is made in the family histories
given in this report to these various organizations.
Fraternal organizations. — Fraternal organizations are an old institution
among Negroes. In the South they rank next in importance to the church;
in the North they have considerable prestige. Membership is large and interest
is strong. Following is a list of the most active in Chicago:
Elks, Great Lakes Lodge No. 43, 1.B.P.O.
Elks of the World (an independent
order of Elks)
Ancient Order of Foresters
Catholic Order of Foresters
American Woodmen
Builders of America
Knights of Pythias
Mosaic Templars of America
Masons
Grand Court Heroines of Jericho of Illi-
nois
Eastern Star
The Golden Circle
Odd FeUows (G.U.O. of O.F.)
Royal Circle of Friends
United Brotherhood of Friendship
Sisters of the Mysterious Ten
All of these organizations, although having their own rituals, serve as a
means of group control and of exchange of views and opinions. They are also a
142 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
guaranty against absolute f riendlessness, and that is perhaps one of the strongest
motives for the estabUshment of the first organizations years ago. Much chari-
table and relief work is carried on by these fraternal bodies among their members.
Out of these associations have grown clubs with social activities among
wider circles. There are, for example, the Easter Lily Club, the Mayflower
Club, and the Masonic Progressive Club.
Social dubs. — Many of the clubs and societies with social, educational,
or professional interests are modeled after those of the larger commxmity.
There are, for example, the Arts and Letters Society, the University Society,
and Civic Study Club. There are also many smaller clubs organized for
various purposes, but designed principally to serve the Negro commimity.
There are more than seventy women's clubs, leagued in the Chicago Federation
of Colored Women's Clubs. There are also the Art and Charity Club, Chicago
Union Charity Club, Cornell Charity, Dearborn Centre, Diana Charity,
East End 30th Ward, East Side Woman's Club, Eureka Fine Arts, Fideles
Charity, Giles Charity, Hyacinth Charity, Ideal Embroidery Art, Ideal
Woman's Club, Imperial Art, Kenwood Center, Mental Pearls, Mothers' Union,
Necessity Club, New Method Industrial, North Shore, North Side Industrial,
Motley Social Uphft, PhyUis Wheatley Club, Progressive Circle of Kings
Daughters, 37th Ward Civic League, Volunteer Workers, West Side Woman's
City Club, and the Woman's Civic League.
Among the exclusive social clubs, perhaps the most important is the
Appomattox Club. Its membership includes the leading business and profes-
sional men, and it has a well-appointed club building. Its membership is
limited and it carries civic and social prestige.
The Phalanx Club is an organization of government employees. Its
membership is large, though limited by occupational restriction. Its interests
are largely social. The Forty Club and Half Century Club are purely social
and still more exclusive.
Negro professional societies, sometimes formed because of the objections
of whites to the participation of Negroes in white societies of a similar nature,
include the Lincoln Dental Association, Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists'
Association, a Bar Association, and a Medical Association.
3. EELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
Negro churches. — The church is one of the first and probably one of the
strongest institutions among Negroes. The importance of churches in the
Negro community lies not only in their large membership and religious
influence, but in their provision of a medium of social control for great numbers
of Chicago Negroes, and in their great value in promoting the adjustment of
newcomers.
In the South the churches are the principal centers for face-to-face relations.
They serve as a medium for the exchange of ideas, making and maintaining
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 143
friendships, community co-operation, collective striving, group competition,
as well as for the dissemination of information, assistance and advice on
practical problems, and the upholding of religious ideals. The pastors know
the members personally, and the church exercises a definite control over
individual behavior.
The church is often the only Negro social institution with an unhampered
opportunity for development. In most southern cities, Negroes have no
Y.M.C.A., public playground, welfare organizations, public hbrary, gym-
nasium, orderly dance halls, pubhc parks, or theaters. The church in a large
degree takes the place of these and fills a vacancy created by the lack of the
pubhc facihties ordinarily found in white communities. In many instances
it determines the social standing of the individual Negro. No one can escape
the opprobrium attached to the term "sinner" if he is not a member of the
church, however successful otherwise.
The minister is the recognized leader of the Negroes, and often their
legal adviser and school teacher. He is responsible for the social good behavior
of his people. No movement can get the support of the people unless it has
his sanction.
In the North the fxmction of both Negro church and pastor is different.
Negroes can find other places than the church for their leisure time; numerous
urban and civic organizations with trained workers look after their interests,
probably better than the church. In the Y.M.C.A. they find reUgion related
to the development of their bodies and minds. In northern cities enterprises
and movements thrive without the good-will or sanction of the clergy, and even
against their protest.
The field wholly occupied in the South by the church is shared in the
North by the labor union, the social club, lectures, and political and other
organizations. Some of the northern churches, realizing this, have estabhshed
emplo3anent agencies and other activities of a more social nature in response
to this new demand.
Social activities.- — The churches in Chicago serve as social-contact centers,
though not to the same extent as in the South. Frequently they arrange
lectures, community programs, f6tes, and meetings. Many of them, seeking
to influence the conduct of the group, have provided recreation and amuse-
ments for their members. Several churches have social-service departments,
basket-ball teams, and hterary societies. Olivet Baptist Church, with a
membership of 9,069, maintains an employment department, rooming directory,
kindergarten, and day nursery, and employs sixteen workers; in its social organ-
ization there are forty-two auxiliary departments. During the last five years
it has raised $200,000, contributed $5,600 for charitable relief, and found jobs
for 1,100 Negroes.
Unique among such developments is the People's Church and Metropolitan
Community Center, organized by a group which withdrew from the Bethel
144 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
African Methodist Episcopal Church in October, 1920. Rel3dng solely upon its
membership, it raised $22,000 during its first five months. Six persons are
employed to carry on the work, one a social-service secretary. Land for a
church building has been purchased, and plans have been made to buy a
community-center building to accommodate several thousand people.
Relief work. — The records of the United Charities, which assumes the care
of dependent children of the juvenile court, show a much smaller proportion
of appeals for aid from Negroes than might be expected. This is partly
explained by the work of the churches in relieving Negro families. A very
high proportion of families below the line of comfortable subsistence belong
to the churches, the small "store-front" churches. The number and variety
of denominational divisions and sects increases competition for membership and
sends pastors and members out into the community to gather in the people.
Forty-one churches, many of them small, reported a total of $15,038 distrib-
uted during 1920 for the relief of the sick and distressed.
Following is a summary of information collected by the Commission
concerning the churches in the Negro community:
Number of churches, regular and "store-front" 170
Number visited 146
Number of churches owning their property 49
Value of property owned $1,677,183
Indebtedness on church properties being bought $325,895.91
Amount collected in 146 churches during 1919 $400,000.00
Membership of 62 of the 146 churches 36,856
Niunber in Sunday school in 57 of 146 churches 16,847
Number of persons in attendance in 64 of 146 churches
Morning 20,379
Evening 13,806
In a very few cases, Negroes are found to be members of white churches,
but the Negro churches have an entirely Negro membership with Negro
pastors.
"Store-front" churches. — The "store-front" church membership is merely
a small group which, for one reason or another, has sought to worship inde-
pendently of any connection with the larger churches. The establishment
of such a church may be the result of a withdrawal of part of the membership
of a larger chiurch. They secure a pastor or select a leader from their own
number and continue their worship in a place where their notions are not in
conflict with other influences. Most frequently a minister formerly in the
South has come with or followed his migrant members and has re-estabUshed
his church in Chicago. Or again a group with religious beliefs and ceremonies
not in accord with those of estabhshed churches may estabUsh a church of
its own. The groups are usually so small and the members so poor as to make
the purchase of a building impossible. The custom has been to engage a
small store and put chairs in it. Hence the name "store- front" church.
NEGR) CHURCHES
63 CHURCHES...
92 _'STOREFRONT"CHURCHES — A
•' i .' i M i ! ^ ;
in \ I \ n n
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO
145
Denominations. — ^The varieties of denominational divisions are wide and
interesting. A classification on the asis of information collected by the
Commission is given in Table VII.
TABLE VII
Denomination
Baptist:
Missionary Baptist
Free Will Baptist
Primitive Baptist
Methodist:
Methodist Episcopal
African Methodist Episcopal
African Methodist Episcopal Zion
Colored Methodist Episcopal
Independent Methodist Episcopal
Presbyterian
Episcopal
Congregational
Disciples of Christ
Saints, Holiness, and Healing Churches.
Total
Regular
19
4S
'Store-Front"
6r
2
4
The steady growth in the number of churches is shown in the dates of
organization of sixty-five of them as given in Table VIII.
TABLE VIII
Year Number
1825-50 2
1850-80 2
1880-go 5
1890-1900 5
1900-1910 5
1910-15 12
1915-16 4
1917 3
1918 15
1919 6
1920 6
Total 6s
Church property. — It was not easy to determine the amoimt of money raised
and handled by the Negro churches for any specific period, because only the
better-organized churches keep accurate accounts.
The total value of the property holdings of twenty-six of the larger and
better-organized churches is $1,677,183.02, with a total indebtedness on
nineteen of them of $318,595.91. In twenty of the twenty-six annual collec-
tions aggregate $226,216.25.
146 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Out of 100 "store-front" churches visited only seven own or are buying the
property they use. The total value of the property of these seven churches is
$44,300. Four of the seven have an indebtedness of $7,300; and the four that
kept records showed a total annual collection of $5,170.
The pastors. — A sharp division both as to education and experience is
found between the pastors of the regular churches and those of the "store-
front" churches. Generally the larger churches have the better-trained,
more experienced, and more highly salaried ministers. Exceptions are found
in the case of one or two "hohness" churches.
The ministers in these various churches represent a range of training from
that of such seminaries as Newton Theological and institutions Kke Yale
University, University of Chicago, and Northwestern University, down to
that of the sixth grade in grammar school. Some have had no schooling at
aU. The number of specially trained ministers totals twenty-one. Six of these
are graduates of recognized northern institutions, while fourteen are graduates
of recognized Negro institutions such as Lincoln University, Howard Univer-
sity, Virginia Union University, and Livingston College. Four are graduates
of standard high schools and four of other high schools below the standard
rating. The remainder fall below the sixth grade. Among this last group
it is not unusual to hear that " God prepares a man to preach; he does not have
to go to school for that. AU he must do is to open his mouth and God will
fill it. The universities train men away from the Bible."
The range of active service in the ministry is from two months to forty-four
years. Here again the larger estabhshed churches have the ministers of longer
service. Typical examples are found in chiurches like Bethel African Methodist
Episcopal Church, whose pastor has had forty-four years of service; Shiloh,
thirty-seven years; Bethesda Baptist Church, thirty-seven years; Grace
Presbyterian Church, thirty-two years (all at this one church) ; Original Provi-
dence, thirty-five years; Berean Baptist Church, thirty years.
4. SOCIAL AND CIVIC AGENCIES
Social agencies in the Negro communities are an expression of group effort
to adjust itself to the larger community. Within the Negro community
there are two types, those especially for Negroes and those which are branches
of the agencies of the larger community but located conveniently for use by
Negroes.
A. AGENCIES ESPECIALLY FOR NEGROES
Chicago Urban League. — This organization is one of the thirty-two branches
of the National Urban League whose headquarters are in New York City.
It was estabhshed in Chicago in 1917 during the period of heaviest migration
of Negroes to the city. The numerous problems consequent upon this influx
guided the development of the League's activities. Its executive board and
TRINITY M.E. CHURCH AND COMMUNITY HOUSE
Located at Prairie Avenue near Thirty-first Street, purchased recently by Negroes
SOUTH PARK M.E. CHURCH
PILGRIM BAPTIST CHURCH
Located at Thirty-third Street and Indiana Avenue Formerlv ■, Tp,„m, -
recently by Nesroes. ^ °™™y a Jewish synagogue, purchased
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 147
officers are whites and Negroes of high standing and influence in both the
white and Negro groups, and it is supported by voluntary subscriptions.
Within four years this organization has taken the leading place among aU
the social agencies working especially among Negroes. It has a well-trained
staff of twelve paid workers, and its work is carried out along the lines accepted
in modern social work. The League has organized its activities as follows:
Administration Department, Industrial Department, Research and Records
Department, Children's Department, settlement work.
The work of the Administration Department involves, in addition to
general management, co-operation with other agencies and co-ordination of
their efforts for community improvement through interracial meetings,
conferences, and joint undertakings.
The Industrial Department during 1920 placed more than 15,000 Negroes
in positions, made industrial investigations in sixteen plants, provided lectures
for workingmen in plants and for foremen over Negro workers. It also
investigates complaints of workers, selects and fits men for positions, secures
positions for Negroes where Negroes have never worked before, and assists
in other ways the adjustment of Negroes in industry. More than 25,000
persons passed through the department during 1920.
The Department of Research and Records makes the investigations on
the basis of which the programs of the League are carried out. Its information
is a permanent and growing body of material useful to all agencies and persons
interested in obtaining reUable information concerning Negroes in Chicago.
The Children's Department handles cases of boys and girls and co-operates
with the schools, juvenile protective organizations, the juvenile court and
probation department, and various other child-helping institutions. A total
of 540 such cases were adjusted during 1920.
During 1919 a total of $28,659 was raised and used in the support of the
Chicago Urban League.
The Wendell Phillips Settlement on the West Side is under the supervision
of the League. The settlement has a day niirsery and provides a center and
leadership for twenty-five groups in the West Side community.
Wabash Avenue Y.M.C.A. — This organization is a branch of the local
Young Men's Christian Association, but because of its location and the
peculiar social problems of its membership and vicinity, it has become one of
the strongest agencies of the community. Its work is among boys and yoxmg
men, many of whom are industrial workers in various plants. Community
work is vigorously promoted. In 1920 an enthusiastic group of 1,137 boys was
enhsted in a neighborhood clean-up campaign, and 100 community gardens
were put in operation. Moving pictures and community singing were provided
during the summer months. The following list gives some statistics of activities
for the first nine months of 1920.
148 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
Attendance at building 140, 740
Attendance at reading-room i9)402
Attendance at Bible classes i , S14
Attendance at industrial dubs 5,394
Attendance at entertainments 6,542
Meals served 100,610
Dormitory attendance 71,396
Persons directed to rooms 614
Persons assisted i , 526
Persons reached through community work 10,406
Personal religious interviews 396
Men referred to churches 196
PHYSICAL WORK
Men used swimming-pool 3,604
Boys used swimming-pool 14,096
Men and boys used shower baths 24,332
Participated in leagues and tournament 3,906
Spectators 44 , 742
Men attended gymnasium classes 5 ,622
Boys attended gynmasium classes 17, ro6
In addition to the foregoing work this institution has promoted efficiency
and industrial clubs among Negro workers in industrial plants, three glee
clubs, noonday recreational programs, and ijine baseball teams.
During 1919 the total contributions for support were $15,353, of which
$3,100 came from Negroes. The membership dues of the latter, however,
totaled $16,000 and receipts from operation amounted to $143,747.
Chicago Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People. — This organization aims to carry out the general policies of the National
Association as far as they apply to Chicago. The national purpose is to
combat injustice against Negroes, stamp out race discriminations, prevent
lynchings, burnings, and torturings of Negroes, and, when they do occur, to
demand the prosecution of those responsible, to assure to every citizen of color
the common rights of an American citizen, and secure for colored children
equal opportunity in public-school education.
In Chicago, the principal efforts of this organization have been in the line
of securing justice for Negroes in the courts and opposing race discriminations
in public accommodations. Its most active period followed the riots of 1919.
With a number of competent attorneys, white and Negro, it gave legal support
to Negro riot victims and followed through the courts the cases of many Negroes
accused of participation in rioting.
Community service. — The South Side Community Service is a re-established
organization growing out of the Soldiers and Sailors' Club. It aims to provide
wholesome recreation and leisure-time activities for its neighborhood. At
SOCIAL AGENCIES
USED BY NEGROES
1 AGENCIES tSPECIALLY FOR NEGR0E5 ;i ■
GENERAL AGENCIES HAVING NEGRO BRANCHES-l ▲
GENERAL AGENCIES USED BY N ESROES AND WHITES--.C
NEGRO RESIDENTIAL AREA Y///////////A
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 149
Community House, 3201 South Wabash Avenue, it serves a number of organiza-
tions, arranges supervised dances, dramatics, programs, and other entertain-
ment for the groups.
Wendell Phillips Settlement. — The Wendell Phillips Settlement is located
on the West Side at 2009 Walnut Street and has been under the supervision
of the Chicago Urban League since 1918. It has a day nursery, serves as
a center for twenty-five different groups, and provides the only pubhc meeting
place for Negroes apart from the churches, on the West Side. There is a
Boy Scout division and a division especially for women and girls.
Butler Community Center. — The Butler Community Center is located on
the North Side in a neighborhood with about 2,000 Negroes. About 250
persons use the Center regularly. , There are classes in citizenship, hygiene,
Negro history, sewing, and china painting. There is an organization of
Camp Fire Girls and a Boys' Group. Through courses of lectures instruction
is given in hygiene, sanitation, and first aid.
Phyllis Wheatley Home. — ^The Phyllis Wheatley Home was estabhshed
several years ago to provide wholesome home surroundings for colored girls
and women who are strangers in the city and to house them until they find
safe and comfortable quarters. The building at 3256 Rhodes Avenue, which
has been purchased, accommodates about twenty girls.
Home for the Aged and Infirm. — The Home for Aged and Infirm Colored
People on West Garfield Boulevard is supported almost entirely by contributions
from Negroes.
Indiana Avenue Y.W.C.A. — The Indiana Avenue branch of the Y.W.C.A.
on the South Side is under the general direction of the Central Y.W.C.A. of
Chicago. Its directors are Negro women. Many girls are directed in their
activities by volunteer group leaders from the community. The Industrial
Department secures employment for Negro girls. A small number of girls
Uve in the building at 3541 Indiana Avenue, and a room directory is maintained
through which safe homes are secvired for girls who are strangers in the city,
or who have no family connections. Mrs. Martha G. McAdoo is the executive
secretary.
Elaine Eome Club and Johnson Home for Girls. — The Elaine Home Club
and the JuUa Johnson Home for Girls are small institutions which provide
living accommodations under careful supervision for young working girls.
Hartzell Center. — ^Hartzell Center is a social institution under the direction
of the South Park Methodist Episcopal Chxurch. It has a commercial school,
in which typewriting and stenography are taught, a cafeteria, and some social
activities.
Illinois Technical School. — ^The Illinois Technical School for Colored Girls,
a Catholic Institution, serves as a boarding and technical school for colored
girls. It accommodates about 100 girls. Sister Augustina is the superin-
tendent.
ISO THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Woodlawn Community Association. — This is a neighboAood organization
originally intended to interest the Negroes of the Woodlawn community in
taking pride in their property and in making the neighborhood more desirable
for residence purposes. It has extended its functions to include community
activities and civic welfare program.
Louise Training School for Colored Boys. — This school is at Homewood,
Illinois, about twenty-five miles from Chicago; imtil 1918 it was located at 6130
South Ada Street. It receives dependent boys between eight and fifteen years
of age. Some of these boys are placed in the institution by the Cook County
authorities. The institution can accommodate only a few. At present
thirty-two boys are cared for in the dormitory. This is the only institution
in the city for dependent colored boys.
B. AGENCIES CONVENIENT EOR NEGROES
American Red Cross. — The American Red Cross has a branch headquarters
at 102 East Thirty-fifth Street. It gives emergency reUef, general information
and advice, and has been active in helping the families of Negro service men.
During the riot of 1919 it provided food for thousands of Negroes who were
cut oflE from work.
United Charities. — The United Charities, which provides relief and other
help for needy families, has four branches convenient for use by Negroes:
one at 2959 South Michigan Avenue, near the center of the main Negro resi-
dence area on the South Side; another at 1701 Grand Avenue, near the West
Side Negro residence area; another at 102 East Oak Street, near the North
Side area; and another at 6309 Yale Avenue, convenient for Negroes Uving
in Woodlawn, in the vicinity of Ogden Park and in the southern part of the
South Side residence area.
The Illinois Children's Home and Aid Society. — ^This society has two field
representatives who find homes for dependent Negro children and supervise
their placing. Since 1919 it has placed and supervised more than 168 Negro
children.
Abraham Lincoln Center. — The Abraham Lincoln Center is at Langley
Avenue and Oakwood Boulevard. Although originally not used by Negroes,
the movement of the Negro population southward has added many of them to
the group of people using its facilities. There is a boys' group, a branch
Ubrary, and a neighborhood visitor. Negroes are welcomed in most of the
activities of this center. Miss Susan Quackenbush is the resident.
C. MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS
Provident Hospital and Training School. — ^Provident Hospital and Training
School is supported and controlled by whites and Negroes. It has a mixed
board of directors. Practically all its physicians and all its internes and
nurses are Negroes. For the year ended June, 1919, the hospital handled
1,421 patients, served 682 persons through its dispensary, and gave free medical
THE CHICAGO URBAN LEAGUE BUILDING
Located at 3032 South Wabash Avenue
THE SOUTH SIDE COMMUNITY SERVICE BUILDING
L ocated at 3 201 South Wahash Avenue
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF CHICAGO 151
care to 143. Of the total number of patients in the hospital during 1919,
1,248 were Negroes, and 173 were white. Support of the institution comes
from patients and donations. During 1919 the receipts from patients totaled
$36,445.81; from donations $5,782.07. Donations in drugs totaled $1,505.95,
and from the dispensary $112.05. The expenses for the year were $42,002.35.
The hospital has an endowment fund of $47,350, invested in securities. It has
a training school for Negro nurses whose faculty is made up of prominent
white and Negro physicians and surgeons.
Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium. — The two branches of this institution
which are in Negro neighborhoods, at 2950 Calumet Avenue and 4746 South
Wabash Avenue, and the Children's South Side Dispensary, 705 West Forty-
seventh Street, are municipal agencies so located that they are convenient for
Negroes.
South Side Dispensary. — This is at 2531 South Dearborn Street and is
supported by the Northwestern University Medical School. It gives free care
to those unable to pay for medical services.
D. SUPPORT OF INSTITUTIONS BY NEGROES
Social agencies, although their work is limited as respects the Negro group,
have for many years taken second place to the churches in self-support. This
is accounted for largely by the fact that social work in general has been regarded
as a philanthropic rather than a co-operative matter. With Negro social
and philanthropic agencies, especially during the period of general unsettlement
following the migration, the number of possible beneficiaries greatly increased,
while the group of Negroes educated in giving to such agencies grew more
slowly. Recently, however, support from Negroes for their own institutions
has gradually been increasing. An example is found in the Urban League.
In 1917 Negroes contributed $1,000 and in 1919 $3,000. During 1920 six
social agencies and twenty-seven churches raised among Negroes approximately
$445,000. Although Negroes contribute in some measure to agencies like the
United Charities and American Red Cross, there is no means of knowing or
accurately estimating the amount.
CHAPTER V
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM
A. A STUDY OF NEGRO FAMILIES
Consideration of the housing problem as a continuing factor in the experi-
ence of Negro families led to an effort to study it from a new angle of approach
— through histories of typical families in the Negro community.
The data thus gathered afford an opportunity to present an interpretative
account of Negro family life, setting forth the intimate problems confronting
Negroes in Chicago, their daily social difficulties, the reflection in their home life
of their struggle for existence, just how they live, how they participate in the
activities of the Negro community and the community at large, their own
opinions concerning civic problems, their housing experience, how much they
earn and how much they save, how much they spend and what value they
receive from these expenditures, how they spend their spare time, and how
they seek to improve their condition in the community.
A selection was made of 274 Negro families Uving in all sections of Chicago.
Three Negro women, well equipped to deal intelligently and sympathetically
with these families, gathered this information. These 274 families lived in
238 blocks, the distribution being such that no type of neighborhood or division
of the Negro population was overlooked. The questionnaire employed con-
tained five pages of questions and required an interview of about two hours.
Special effort was made to secure purely social information without the aid
of leading questions.
I. GENERAL LIVING CONDITIONS
For the most part the physical surroimdings of the Negro family, as
indicated by these family histories, are poor. The majority of these houses
fall within the classifications noted as Types "C" and "D" in the discussion
of the physical condition of housing.'
On the South Side, where most of the Negro population lives, the low
quality of housing is widespread, although there are some houses of a better
grade which are greatly in demand.
The ordinary conveniences, considered necessities by the average white
citizen, are often lacking. Bathrooms are often missing. Gas lighting is
common, and electric lighting is a rarity. Heating is commonly done by wood
or coal stoves, and furnaces are rather exceptional; when furnaces are present,
they are sometimes out of commission.
See p. 186,
152
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 153
Under the heading of "Housing Conditions" such notations as these are
often found:
No gas, bath, or toilet. Plumbing very bad; toilet leaks; bowl broken; leak in
kitchen sink; water stands in kitchen; leak in bath makes ceiUng soggy and wet all
the time. Plastering ofE in front room. General appearance very bad inside and out.
Had to get city behind owner to put in windows, clean, and repair plumbing. Heat
poor; house damp. Plumbing bad; leaks. Hot-water heater out of order. Needs
repairing done to roof and floors. In bad repair; toilet in yard used by two families.
Toilet ofi from dining-room; fixtures for gas; no gas; just turned off; no bath;
doors out of order; won't fasten. Sanitary conditions poor; dilapidated condition;
toilet won't flush; carries water to bathtub. Plumbing bad; roof leaks; plastering
ofi; no bath or gas; general repairs needed; very dirty. Plumbing bad; plastering
off in toilet ; window panes broken and out ; no bath or gas. Plastering off from water
that leaks from flat above; toilet leaks; does not flush; washbowl and bath leak
very badly; repairs needed on back porch; rooms need calcimining. No water in
hydrant in hall; no toilet, bath, or gas; general repair needed. Water not turned on
for sink in kitchen ; water for drinking and cooking purposes must be carried in ; toilet
used by four fanuhes; asked landlord to turn on water in kitchen; told them to move;
roof leaks; stairs and back porch in bad order. Sewer gas escapes from basement
pipes; water stands in basement. House dirty; flues in bad condition; gas pipes
leak; porch shaky. No heat and no hot water; no repairing done; no screens; gas
leaks all over house; stationary tubs leak. Water pipes rotted out; gas pipes leak.
Toilet leaks; plastering off; windowpanes out. Plastering off; large rat holes all
over; paper hanging from ceiling.
This is the conimon situation of the dweller in the districts mentioned.
The variations are in degree rather than kind. To dwellings a little better
in sanitation and repair than those just described, the adjective "fair" was
given.
Occasionally a Negro family manages to escape from this wretched t3^e
of dwelling in the "Black Belt." Some who were financially able purchased
homes in Woodlawn, for example, where they live much as white residents do,
supplied with the comforts and conveniences of life and in fairly clean, whole-
some surroimdings. There, as a rule, the physical equipment of their dwellings
is good and is kept in repair. In some instances they have hot-water heating,
electric lighting, and gas for cooking purposes. They ordinarily redecorate
once a year, take proper care of their garbage, keep the lawns cut and the
premises clean; and otherwise reveal a natural and normal pride of ownership.
In this respect the Negro residents of Woodlawn are far more fortunate
than many of their race brothers who have purchased dwellings in the "Black
Belt." Many of these purchases have been made by migrants on long-time
payments, and large expenditure would be required to put the houses in repair
and keep them so. Purchases made by Negroes in Woodlawn have been chiefly
of substantial dwellings, not necessarily new but in good condition and needing
only ordinary repairs from time to time.
154 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
II. WHY NEGROES MOVE
Except where the property is owned by Negroes there is frequent moving.
The records obtained of these movements give a great variety of reasons.
A strong desire to improve living conditions appears with sufficient frequency
to indicate that it is the leading motive. Buying a home is one of the ways
of escape from intolerable living conditions, but removal to other houses or
fiats is more often tried. For example, a man who now owns his home near
Fifty-first Street and South Wabash Avenue — ^living there with his two brothers
and five lodgers — ^has moved sis times, " to live in a better house and a better
neighborhood." A family now living near Thirty-first Street and Prairie
Avenue, resident in Chicago since 1893, has moved four times, three times to
obtain better houses in better neighborhoods and once to get nearer to work.
A man and wife living near Fifty-third and South Dearborn streets have moved
four times since coming to Chicago in 1908. A family living on East Forty-
fifth Street and paying $60 a month rent for six rooms has moved twice since
1900 to "better and cleaner houses." Another family paying $65 a month
for eight rooms on East Bowen Avenue has moved twice since 1905 into
better houses and neighborhoods. " Better house " and " better neighborhood "
were the most frequently given reasons.
Of kindred nature are these: leaky roof; house cold; dirty; inconvenient; did
not like living in rear flat; to better conditions; better houses away from questionable
places; landlord would not clean; first floor not healthy; small and undesirable;
not desirable flat; poor pliunbing; didn't like neighborhood; moved to better quar-
ters; landlord would not repair; house too damp; no windows; owner would not
fix water pipes; more room wanted; better environment for children; better street;
no yard for children; better people; house in bad condition; more conveniences for
roomers.
ni. THE FAMILY GROUPING
The normal family is generally recognized as consisting of five persons —
two parents and three children. Properly they should make up a single
group and live by themselves. The 274 families studied were chosen as
follows: in the most populous district, from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth
streets and from Wentworth Avenue to Lake Michigan, ninety-nine family
histories were taken; in the district north of Thirty-first Street to Twelfth
Street and from Wentworth Avenue to the Lake, forty-sk; in the narrow
strip in Hyde Park known as the Lake Park district, thirty-seven; in the district
from Thirty-ninth to Sixtieth streets and from Wentworth to Cottage Grove
Avenue, thirty-six; on the West Side, sixteen; in the Ogden Park district,
fifteen; on the North Side, fourteen; and in Woodlawn, eleven. For conven-
ience, as well as to show contrasts or like conditions, the material has been
analyzed and interpreted by districts.
There was found a wide variation in the family groups, comprising six
classifications, in three of which no lodgers appear. A lodger here means
HOMES or WHITE Al
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TIME CONSUMED IN TRANSPORTATION TQ AND FROM THE ARGO PLANT
BY ANY CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES .
LONGEST RIDE FOR WHITE EMPLOYEES:
ARGO TO LEMQNT VIA CHICAGO '& JOLIET ELECTRIC R.R 3Z MINUTES
LONGEST RIDE FOR NEGRO EMPLOYEES-
ARGO TO STATE & 31'-' 5T VIA ARCHER AVE & STATE ST
SURFACE LINES. WITH TWO TRANSFERS ,67 MINUTES
ARGO TO STATE 8. ,39'-" ST. VIA 63"-" 5T & STATE ST
SURFACE LINES. WITH TWO TRANSFERS 60 MINUTES
NEGRO EMPLOYEES
rN CHICAGO' OUTSIDE OF CHICAGO TOTAL
)ME or WHITE EMPLOYEE 588 1329 1917
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 155
an adult not a member of the immediate family. Thus relatives, unless
infants or children, are classed as lodgers. The three groups without lodgers
are: (i) man and wife; (2) two parents and children; (3) a parent and children.
The other three groups with lodgers are: (id) man and wife and lodgers;
(2ffl) man, wife, children, and lodgers; (30) man or woman, surviving head of
the family, with lodgers.
Of the total 274 family groups there were 104 without lodgers and 170,
or 62 per cent, with lodgers. For the most part the lodgers were found in
" 20" classification — in families. There were ninety-two such groups and only
sixty-one families with no lodgers. Forty-two couples had lodgers, and in
thirty-six instances a man or woman liviag alone had lodgers. Thirty-nine
couples were living alone, and in only four instances was there a parent alone
with a child.
The Negro colony in Woodlawn approaches most nearly the normal
family grouping. Home ownership in that district is fairly common, and the
houses for the most part are substantial and well fitted and suited to the
families. In the eleven Woodlawn families there was but one where the mother
or father was dead or not living with the family. Lodgers were found in only
four of the eleven families: two were couples, one a family, and the other a
siugle woman. In the eleven families there were seventeen children.
A marked contrast with this section is found in the congested Negro
district between Thirty-first and Thirty-ninth streets. Out of a total of
ninety-niae families seventy- two had lodgers, or 72 per cent as contrasted
with 36 per cent in Woodlawn and 62 per cent for the total 274 cases. In
this district there were forty-two families with children, thirteen couples
without children, and seventeen where a man or woman took lodgers. There
were only fourteen families without lodgers, and thirteen couples hving
alone.
North of Thirty-first Street in this South Side area were similar conditions.
Of forty-six households studied, twenty-seven, or 58.7 per cent, had lodgers:
of these sixteen were families with children, nine were couples and two were
man or woman with children. Of the households without lodgers, there were
twelve families with children, five couples liviag alone, and two instances of
parent and child.
The percentage of families with lodgers was highest in the Lake Park
district, 75.6 per cent. On the West Side it was 68 per cent, a trifle higher
than for the entire 274 families. On the North Side it was 57 per cent, on
the South Side between Thirty-ninth and Sixtieth streets, 41.6 per cent, and
in the Ogden Park district 40 per cent.
The Ogden Park district, with a relatively low percentage of families having
lodgers, resembles the Woodlawn district in many respects. The houses are
built for single families and are largely owned by Negroes who have lived in
that locality for many years. Of the fifteen families there visited, nine had
iS6 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
no lodgers; and of the seven with lodgers, four were families and two were
couples without children.
Rx)mn_crgw^Mg. — ^A study of Negro housing made in 1909 by the Chicago
School of Civics and Philanthropy brought out the fact that, although Negro
families find it extremely difficult to obtain a flat of three or four rooms,
they dojt iot crow d together as much as white immigrants; that Negroes take
larger flats or houses and rent rooms to lodgers to help pay the rent, and thus
lessen crowding among the members of the family. Among the 274 families
studied by the Commission there was comparatively little overcrowding.
One room to a person is a standard of room occupancy generally accepted by
housing authorities as involving no overcrowding. Of these 274 Negro
households, only sixty-seven exceeded the standard. There were, of course,
wide divergences from the standard. For example, there were eight instances
of six persons Hving in five rooms; six of eight persons living in six rooms;
four of six persons hving in four rooms; one of six persons living in three rooms;
one of seven persons hving in three rooms; two of seven persons living in four
rooms; two of eight persons hving in five rooms; one of nine persons hving
in five rooms; and one of eleven persons living in five rooms.
In the cases of unusually large families, either in the number of children or
lodgers, there was a corresponding increase in the number of rooms. Thus in
the case of fourteen persons making up one family, they were Hving in ten rooms.
The five-room dwelling was the most common, with fifty-nine families; six-
room, forty-seven; seven-room, forty- two; four-room, forty-one.
In the Ogden Park district the standard of one person to one room was
most closely adhered to. All the fifteen famihes studied in that district were
housed in four-, five-, or six-room dwellings; ten of them in five-room dwellings.
In Woodlawn the tendency was toward somewhat larger dwellings. There
were no four- and five-room dweUings, but five of seven rooms and three of six
rooms, one each of eight and three rooms. The four-room dwelling was most
prevalent on the North Side. Of the foiurteen families studied there, six were
in such dweUings. There were two dwellings of six rooms, two of seven,
one of five, two of three, and one of eleven rooms.
On the West Side, also, thirteen of the sixteen families were housed in four-,
five-, six-, or seven-room dweUings, the five-room type predominating. In the
Lake Park district the five-room type was most frequent, there being eleven
of these out of a total of thirty-seven, six of six rooms and seven of seven rooms,
the next largest group being five of eight rooms.
On the South Side in the district from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth Street,
out of a total of ninety-nine there were eighteen famihes in five-room dweUings,
seventeen in foiur-room, nine in three-room, ten in six-room, fourteen in seven-
room, and eight in ten-room dweUings. In the district north of Thirty-first
Street the predominating size was six-room dweUings, of which there were
eleven, and there were nine of four rooms, seven of five rooms, and seven of
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 157
seven rooms, the rest scattering from one-room dwellings to one dwelling of
thirteen rooms. From Thirty-ninth to Sixtieth streets, six-room dwellings
were most frequent, there being eight of these out of a total of thirty-six, and
there were seven of five rooms, six of six rooms, and six of seven rooms. The
dwellings occupied by Negroes south of Thirty-ninth Street, it should be
noticed, are larger than those north of that street.
The grouping of the 274 families according to number of persons is as
follows:
Families Persons to Family
48 4
40 2
35 3
37 S
30 7
29 6
22 8
17 9 or more
16 Not recorded
274
Four persons to a "family" was the most common type, there being forty-
eight of these out of the 274. In the Woodlawn and Ogden Park districts
the group of three was predominant. The North Side district grouping of
two persons to a family is partly due to the inclusion of nine "groups" of one
person each who were interviewed mainly for data beariug upon industrial
relationships. The tables show a total of sixteen such groups iu the eight
districts; but they are not deemed sufficient to vitiate the statistics.
Negroes have more space in their living quarters than do other Chicago
people housed in similar grades of dwellings. They were usually found in
dwellings of five rooms for each family, while the prevailing size among the
foreign groups was four rooms, as disclosed by the Chicago School of Civics
housing studies from 1909 to 1917. In the School's earliest study of the
Negroes it was said:
The colored families do not as a rule live in the small and cramped apartments in
which other nationalities are so often found. Even the families who apply to the
United Charities for relief are frequently living in apartments which would be con-
sidered adequate, as far as the nmnber of rooms is concerned, for famiUes in com-
fortable circumstances.
Some marked exceptions, of course, were found.
The four-room dwelling was found to prevail among the Slovaks of the
Twentieth Ward, the Lithuanians of the Fourth Ward, the Greeks and Italians
in the neighborhood of Hull-House, the various central and southern European
nationalities who work in the South Chicago steel mUIs and live near-by,
and among the Jews, Bohemians, and Poles of the West Side.
IS8 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
The lodger problem. — ^The prevalence of lodgers is one of the most conspicu-
ous problems in the Negro housing situation. It is largely a social question.
The difficulty of finding a home adequate for a family of four or five persons
at a reasonable rent has forced many Negroes to take over large buUdings
in better localities and in better physical condition but with much higher rents.
To meet these rents they have taken lodgers. It was seldom possible to
investigate the character of the lodgers. The arrangement of these large
houses, originally intended for single-family use, prevents famUy privacy
when lodgers are added, making a difficult situation for families with children.
Again, the migration brought to the city many unattached men and women
who could find no other place to live except in families. Thus it happens that
in Negro families the lodger problem is probably more pressing than in any
other group of the community. Not only do lodgers constitute a social
problem for the famUy, but, having little or no interest in the appearance
and condition of the property, they are in many instances careless and irrespon-
sible and contribute to the rapid deterioration of the buildings.
As previously explained, the term "lodgers," in this report, includes
relations as well as other adults unrelated to the family. It was apparent in
the study that there was a large number of relative-lodgers in Negro families.
The recent migration from the South had a distinct bearing on this situation.
Many Negroes came to Chicago at the solicitation of relatives and remained
in their households until they could secure homes for themselves. The migra-
tion further accounts for the accentuation of the lodger problem diuring the
period immediately following it. The 274 family histories include 1,319
persons, of whom 485, or 35 per cent, were lodgers, living in 62 per cent of the
households. The greatest number of households with lodgers were those
living in five-room dwellings. There were thirty-eight such households.
Liviag in six- and seven-room dwellings were thirty-four families with lodgers.
Families with only one lodger were most numerous. There were fifty-five
such families as compared with thirty-nine having two lodgers, twenty-five
with three lodgers, twenty-three with four lodgers, thirteen with six lodgers,
eight with five lodgers, and seven with more than six lodgers.
Naturally the lodger evil was found in its worst form iu the congested
parts of the South Side. In the district from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth
streets seventy-two of the ninety-nine famiUes had lodgers. In twenty-two
families there was but one, however, as against twelve with three and four,
eleven with two, and six with five and six lodgers. Two families had ten each,
and one had thirteen. This last case was that of a widow who rented nine
sleeping-rooms in her ten-room house, in addition to catering at odd moments.
It was a typical rooming-house as distinguished from a family taking lodgers.
One family that had ten lodgers consisted of a man, his wife, and a son twenty-
five years old; they had eight bedrooms, seven opening into a hall. The other
family that had ten lodgers consisted of the parents and two children, a boy
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 159
of eight and a girl of seven, and had a ten-room house. The lodgers were
two men and three women, with five children. Five of the ten rooms were
used as sleeping-rooms.
In the district north of Thirty-first Street an increased number of lodgers
appeared in only one family, that of a man and his wife, without children.
They lived in a ten-room house, using eight of the rooms for sleeping purposes
and accommodating seven male and five female lodgers.
In the district from Thirty-ninth to Sixtieth Street was one instance of
seven male lodgers in a seven-room house with the man who owned the prop-
erty. Two of the lodgers were his brothers. There was no heat and no
bathroom. The house had been reported to the health department.
In the Lake Park district one, two, or three lodgers were the rule, only
five of the twenty-eight families with lodgers in that district being outside of
those three classes. Eight lodgers were found in an eight-room dwelling.
The family consisted of man and wife, and the only female lodger was their
niece. Five rooms were used for sleeping purposes.
In the other district no instances of excessive overcrowding due to lodgers
were found.
Complaint has often been made of the numerical preponderance of lodgers
over children among Chicago Negroes, and comment has been made on the
economic significance. It has been suggested, for example, that economic
pressure had lowered the birth-rate among Negroes and increased the infant-
mortality rate. As indicated by the 274 family histories, the number of lodgers
among the Negro population exceeds the number of children, that is, the number
of boys less than twenty-one years and girls less than eighteen. The School of
Civics and Philanthropy, in its housing studies, counted as children those less
than twelve years of age. On this basis it found in its study of the Negroes
of the South and West sides that there were less than half as many children
as lodgers on the South Side, but a more normal situation in the West Side.
Even extending the ages of children, as has been done in the present report,
the situation does not appear in a much better light.
The proportion of lodgers and of children in the districts covered by the
Commission is shown in Table DC.
By way of comparison similar figures from other housing studies of the
Chicago School of Civics might be mentioned, the children in each instance
being less than twelve years old.
Among the Slovaks of the Twentieth Ward, 13 per cent were lodgers and
32 per cent children; in South Chicago, 27.3 per cent lodgers and 25.7 per cent
children; among the Greeks and Italians near HuU-House, 13 per cent lodgers
and 30 per cent children; among the Lithuanians of the Fourth Ward, 28 per
cent lodgers and 27 per cent children.
As far as the South Side is concerned, the situation with regard to the
balance between lodgers and children has become aggravated since the earliest
i6o
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
School of Civics report was issued, whereas the situation on the West Side
has improved somewhat.
Where there were children and lodgers together, a considerable number of
instances were found which suggest probable injury to health or morals,
and sometimes both. Even where lodgers are relatives, impairment of health
and morals is threatened in certain circumstances, especially if the over-
crowding is flagrant. For example, a household on South Dearborn Street
near Thirty-fourth Street consisted of a father, mother, a son of nineteen
years, and a baby girl of four months, with three lodgers, two men and one
TABLE IX
District
Percentage of
Lodgers
Percentage of
Children
South Side:
Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth
Twenty-second to Thirty-first
Thirty-ninth tn Sivtioth
4S-9
37-8
30.1
21.8
42.1
lS-2
Z6.9
12.3
IS-4
20.4
21. A
West Side
32.0
16.9
25.0
300
4S-0
Lake Park
North Side :
Woodlawn
Ogden Park
Total of ?74 families
3S-0
22.7
woman — seven persons living in seven rooms and sleeping in aU parts of the
house. One of the lodgers was a sister-in-law, another a nephew by marriage,
and the third, a stranger, had a bedroom to himself. In a ten-room house in
East Thirty-second Street parents having a boy of eight years and a girl of
seven years were found to have taken in ten lodgers, two of whom were men.
In another instance five children, four of them boys of eight, five, four, and two
years and a girl of eleven, lived with their parents and two lodgers in a six-room
house.
In Ogden Park, a district which shows a high percentage of children,
lodgers sometimes are added to the family. In one house of five rooms, for
example, there were found living twelve persons — ^father, mother, two sons,
sixteen and seventeen years of age, four daughters, thirty-three, twenty-four,
twenty-two, and thirteen years of age, and four lodgers — a daughter, her
husband, and their two infants. There were only two bedrooms for the
twelve persons. Another instance was that of a family of father, mother,
four sons, nine, five, three, and two years, and two daughters, seven years and
three weeks, with a sister of one of Uie parents for a lodger. The nine persons
lived in five rooms. There were only two beds in the house, and one of the
bedrooms was not in use.
On the South Side near Thirty-first Street there was a case where a man
lodger occupied one bedroom, the other being used by the parents and their
eight-year-old daughter — ^four persons in a four-room flat. On South Park
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM i6i
Avenue near Twenty-ninth Street two lodgers, a son-in-law and a nephew,
occupied two of the six rooms, while the husband and wife, a son of twenty-
three years, and a daughter of twenty-one years lived in the other four rooms,
which included the kitchen and dining-room. A similar instance was found,
on Indiana Avenue near Thirtieth Street, where two male lodgers lived with
a family consisting of the parents, a son of twenty, and a daughter of eighteen,
all in six rooms, two of which were not sleeping-rooms. On Lake Park Avenue
near Fifty-sixth Street a famUy, iacluding father, mother, and daughter of
twenty, slept in the kitchen in order that three lodgers, one male and two female,
might be accommodated in the five-room flat. In a five-room flat on Kenwood
Avenue near Fifty-third Street the two male lodgers occupied both bedrooms,
while the mother and her boy of nine and girl of seven years lived in the kitchen
and dining-room. Seven persons were found living in a six-room house on
East Fortieth Street; they were father, mother, a son of five years, a daughter
of seven years, and an infant, with a male and a female lodger, friends of the
parents. Virtually the whole house was used for sleeping purposes.
These are examples of the arrangements that sometimes occur when
chfldren and lodgers are found in the same dwelling. The fact that in the
main Chicago Negroes live in more rooms per dwelling than immigrants,
whose standard of living has not yet risen, does not necessarily mean that the
Negroes have a greater appreciation of a house with more rooms. The explana-
tion in many cases is that the Negroes take whatever living quarters happen
to be available, which often are large residences abandoned by well-to-do
whites, and then adapt their mode of living to the circumstances. Lodgers
are one of the sources of revenue that aid in paying the rent. Negro families
often expressed a desire to live by themselves if they could find a dwelling of
suitable size for reasonable rent. They sometimes complained of lodgers
and declared that they would prefer not to take them at all, especially women
lodgers. The objection to married couples and unattached men was not so
pronounced.
Smaller houses thus would seem to be a factor in the solution of the lodger
problem. A Negro real estate dealer was asked if the Negro was as contented
or as much disposed to live in a cottage as white people, or whether he wanted
to live in spacious quarters where he could draw a revenue from roomers.
The reply was that the Negro would rather live by himself. This is
evidenced by the fact that many Negroes would rather live in an apartment
and rent two or three rooms than take a large house and have it full of roomers.
Lodgers are often found in the smaller dwellings occupied by Negroes.
Rent is often the determining factor in the selection of the smaller dwelling.
When it is so high that it forms too large a proportion of income, economic
necessity often drives the Negro family to admit one or more lodgers at the
expense of overcrowding and its attendant harmfulness. This was noted in
certain districts where the dwellings as a rule were small.
i62 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Rents and lodgers. — ^An effort was made to determine tlie economic necessity
for lodgers as expressed by the relation of the wages of heads of families to
the amounts of rent paid. It is assmned that in a normal family budget
rent should not exceed one-fifth of the income of the head of the family. Wide
variations from that proportion w;ere revealed.
Facts as to both rent and wages were difficult to secure, owing to the
variable earnings of various members of the family, variable sums received
from lodgers, and other factors. For example, seventeen occupants owned
their houses. In seventy-eight other cases information obtained by the
investigators was not adequate or could not, for various reasons, be used in
calculations.
The remaining 179 cases out of the 274 provided data from which the
following facts are presented: In three instances the rent exceeded the income
of the head of the family; in thirty-one instances the rent equaled one-half
the income of the head of the family, and in an equal number it amounted
to one-third. In one case the rent was equal to three-fourths of the income,
and in twenty-three cases the rent equaled one-fourth. Thus eighty-nine
instances were disclosed in which the rent was in excess of one-fifth of the
income of the head of the family. In most of these cases, particularly the
extreme ones, the income of the head of the family was greatly supplemented
by money received from lodgers or from earnings of other members of the
family.
The remaining ninety families in which the rent amounted to one-fiifth
or less of the income of the head of the family were divided as follows: Twenty-
four fell in the one-fifth column, twenty-seven in the one-sixth column, fourteen
in the one-seventh colimm, eleven in the one-eighth column, while fourteen
were in the "low" column. The last named included those ranging from
one-ninth to one-twenty-third.
On the South Side, in the district from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth Street,
rents exceeded the one-fifth proportion in one-half of the sixty-two famihes
studied, two of them paying rent in excess of income, eight paying one-half of
income for rent, fourteen paying one-third, and seven paying one-fourth.
Of the remaining thirty-one families in that district, seven fell in the one-fifth
column, twelve in the one-sixth column, six in the one-seventh column, four
in the one-eighth colunrn and two in the "low," being one-ninth and one-
eleventh.
Rents were high also in the Lake Park district, where twenty-five families
of a total of thirty-six were paying in excess of the one-fifth proportion. Four-
teen of these paid one-half of the income for rent, five paid one-fourth, four
paid one-third, one paid three-quarters, and in one instance rent exceeded
income. In only five instances was the normal one-fifth paid, two paid one-
sixth, two paid one-seventh, while two paid one-ninth and one-eleventh
respectively.
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 163
In the district north of Thirty-first Street, eighteen out of a total of thirty-
eight families paid in excess of the one-fifth proportion, four paid one-half,
nine paid one-third, and five paid one-fourth. Six families paid the normal
one-fifth, five paid one-sixth, two paid one-seventh, one one-eighth, and six less
than that, running as low as one-twenty-third.
The Ogden Park area was found to be a district of low rents. None of
the eight families studied paid as much as the normal one-fifth. Two paid
one-sixth, one paid one-seventh, three one-eighth, one one-ninth, and one
one-twelfth.
The other districts did not show much variation from the normal propor-
tion.
Examination was made of all the factors in instances where the rent equaled
one-half or more of the income of the head of the family or amounted to
one-third. With regard to the former it was assumed, for the purpose of the
study, that it compelled renting rooms to lodgers. With regard to the one-
third column, lodgers were assumed to be an economic necessity when they
offered the only source of income in addition to that of the head of the family.
On these bases it was found that in forty-six famiUes supplementary income
afforded by lodgers was necessary, that in three instances they were the sole
source of the income, while one instance was presented of a widow whose
children partly supported her, but insufficiently for their common needs.
While in most instances of high rents and low income on the part of the
head of the family good reason appeared for taking lodgers, in not a few
instances further analysis revealed other sources of income which might
indicate that there was no economic necessity for lodgers. There was one
instance on Forest Avenue, for example, where the relation of the rent to the
father's income was one-third, but where his sons earned more than double
his income. In another family on South State Street near Thirtieth Street,
the father earned $125 a month and paid $50 a month rent, but additional
income was derived from the wife, son, and daughter, in addition to that
obtained from lodgers. There was likewise the case of a waiter Uving on
Lake Park Avenue whose rent was $30 a month as against wages of $10 a
week. In addition to the tips he doubtless received in his work, his wife
earned $18 a week, and $6 a week was derived from lodgers. In one instance
a man living near Fifty-sixth Street and Wabash Avenue paid rent equal to
one-third of his wages, but had considerable income from investments.
Such instances tend to explain why only forty-eight families were found
in which lodgers seemed to be an economic necessity in aiding to pay rents,
when eighty-nine cases were revealed in which the rent was in excess of one-
fifth of the wages of the head of the family. The family histories also showed
that various means besides lodgers supplemented the insufficient income of a
family head. In some cases the wife or children worked, and not infrequently
their incomes exceeded those of the father.
i64 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGK)
Lodgers were often found in families where the income from that source
did not appear to be needed. This was the case in a number of families with
unusually high wages and abnormally low rents. High wages and low rents
explain most of the cases shown where the rent ranges from one-ninth to
one-twenty-third of the income of the head of the family. In the one-twenty-
third case the couple lived in two rooms on South State Street for which they
paid $6 a month. The man earned $35 a week in an iron foundry, while the
wife added $18 a week to the common fund. Another instance was that of
a man who paid $16 a month rent and earned $48 weekly at the Stock Yards.
His wife and a relative added $23.60 a week to the family income. A man in
Ogden Park whose income as a contractor was $48 a week paid $16 a month
rent. A man living on the West Side earned $48 a week and paid $15 a month
rent. His children added $43.50 a week to the family income.
Even in circumstances such as these, lodgers were sometimes taken.
In one case where the rent was one-tenth of the wages of the head of the family
the man paid $15 a month rent for a five-room dwelling out of his $36 weekly
wages earned in a coke plant at Gary. His son and lodgers increased the
monthly income by $28. There was a teamster earning $30 a week who
paid $15 a month rent for a six-room dwelling in which nine persons lived.
The proportion of rent to his wages was as one to eight. His wife, one of his
children, and lodgers added to the income. As in numerous instances where
the income was high, a large amount was spent for food in this family.
An instance was found of a man earning $9.50 to $10.50 a day. His wife
was a caterer. There was a daughter of fifteen years. They took three
roomers. There was no need for the woman to work, but she said she wanted
the money. She was a good cook, having served in that capacity in the South,
and she said she earned $15 when she went out for a week-end of catering.
In this instance there seemed to be httle need for lodgers.
Another case was that of a man and his wife and two grown children
living in a nine-room dwelling on Calumet Avenue and having nine lodgers.
The man was earning $40 a week, and the lodgers paid $33.50 a week. The
wife occasionally did day work, earning $3 .65 a day. The monthly expenditure
for food was $100, clothing $33, and rent $60.
Another instance was that of a widow with three children who lived on
State Street near Thirty-seventh Street, in a three-room flat. Though the
chDdren's earnings amounted to $78 a week, the inevitable lodger was present,
contributing $4 a week to the common fund. This little family spent $120
a month for food.
Large amounts spent for food were not uncommon in some families that
took lodgers. A typical instance was that of the man and wife with three
children and two lodgers who lived on Prairie Avenue. The man earned
$25 a week, while $82 a month was derived from the lodgers. Food for the
family alone cost $100 a month.
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 165
A man on North Wells Street earned $57 a week for the support of his
wife and three adopted children. They lived in an eleven-room house which
also accommodated the man's sister and brother. One of the sons earned
I75 a week, and the lodgers paid $45 a month. This family spent $180 a
month for food. Another earned $22 a week in the Stock Yards. Besides
his wife and child they had in their nine-room house on East Thirtieth
Street six lodgers paying $20 a week. This family spent $100 a month for
food and $34 for clothing. Another man and wife on Forest Avenue paid
$25 a month rent and spent $88 a month for food and $43 for clothiug. They
derived $3.75 a week from their two lodgers. A similar case was that of a family
which lived on East Thirty-second Street. The man earned $30 a week in
a foundry. He and his wife have one child, and they had ten lodgers, who
paid $72 a week. In this family $80 was spent for food each month and $50
for clothing.
The heaviest expenditure for food in any one family was $330 a month.
This was explained by the fact that there were twenty table boarders. The
husband earned $22.50 a week, and there were three lodgers who paid $13 a
week. The boarders collectively paid $13 a day. Rent was $55 a month,
and $25 a month was spent for clothing.
Other reasons for the ready acceptance of lodgers in Negro dwelliugs
were apparent, among them friendship and the desire to be obliging and to
assist others in a new environment. Most Negroes would regard it as a breach •
of good faith to encourage friends and relatives to come to Chicago from the
South and then fail to help them after their arrival. This accounts for the
frequent designation of "relatives" and "friends" among the lodgers. Some-
times these lodgers seemed to be permanent, but often they were taken only
until they could adjust themselves.
During the period of greatest migration, 1915-20, hundreds of imattached
men and women could be seen on the streets as late as one or two o'clock in
the morning, seeking rooms shortly after their arrival in Chicago. One
instance was reported of a family to whose house four men came at midnight
looking for rooms. Lack of lodging-houses or of hotels where accommodations
could be had at reasonable prices was partly responsible for this swarm of
migrants seeking shelter in private homes. The meager provision of such
places for the accommodation of unattached Negroes has been a factor in the
lodger problem.
rv. HOW NEGRO FAMILIES LIVE
How Negroes earn their living in Chicago, what occupational changes
those from the South have imdergone since arrival, how their present occupa-
tions differ from those in their former homes — information on all these poiats
was gained from the family histories. Almost without exception, the Negroes
interviewed declared that their economic situation had improved in Chicago.
i66 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
In most instances they were able to earn more; some said they were obliged
to work harder but felt well recompensed because of their improved economic
condition.
From the occupations of persons included in the study it appears that
there is a distinct departure from the domestic and personal service in which
Negroes were commonly found a few years ago. Among the 274 famiUes
visited, the heads of 225 families were men. Of this number eighteen were
idle at the time of the investigation, in the summer of 1920, nine were profes-
sional men, nineteen were in business, twenty-two were in some skilled trade
or work, no were doing unskilled work, and only forty-seven were engaged
in personal service. The latter term includes such occupations as doorman
in a hotel or club, bellboy, bootblack, cook, waiter, porter, elevator operator,
and chauffeurs who lack training as mechanics. These are chiefly functions
which bring employees in contact with the pubUc or with white employers
in a more or less personal capacity.
Before coming to Chicago, forty-five of the 225 were farmers. Practically
all of these entered the field of unskilled occupations here. Only sixty-four
of the 225 had been doing unskilled work in their former home. Six more did
skilled work in their former homes than were doing such work in Chicago;
two more were in personal service; two less were in business; and one more was
in a profession.
Of these 225 family heads, 122 migrated to Chicago, chiefly from the South,
during the period from 1916 to 1920 inclusive. Three periods in the industrial
history of the family head were taken: (i) occupation in the former home;
(2) occupation on first arrival in Chicago; and (3) adjustment to new conditions
in Chicago and occupation at the time of investigation, during the spring and
early summer of 1920.
Many of these migrants had not yet made their adjustment to the new
occupations at that time. However, certain tendencies were manifest. For
example, in the former home thirty-one were farmers and fprty-five were
unskilled workers. In the period of adjustment seventy-seven were doing
unskilled work. The unskilled occupations had apparently, in the shifting
about, absorbed the farmers. The difficulty of continuing in skilled occupa-
tions in the North was evidenced. In the South fourteen of the 122 men
were engaged in skilled occupations of some sort; in the period of adjustment
there were fifteen; but at the time of the investigation there were but twelve.
In the South nineteen of the 122 were in personal-service occupations;
during the transition period, eighteen; and at the time of the investigation,
sixteen. In the South seven were in business; during the period of transition,
three; and at the time of the investigation, five. In the South four were in
practice as professional men; during the period of transition only three;
while at the time of the investigation there were five, one just beginning to
practice.
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 167
As to whether any previous occupational training was used or abandoned
after coming to the North, it appeared that of the 225 only 91 utilized such
training. In 134 cases previous training was not used, but these included
many who were farmers in the South.
Of forty-nine who had been engaged in personal-service occupations before
coming to Chicago, only twenty stUl continued in such work. Six were unem-
ployed at the time of the investigation, nineteen were in unskilled work, one
was doing skilled work, and three were in business.
Forty-nine women were heads of famihes as revealed by the 274 family
histories. This does not include all the Negro women shown by the histories
to be engaged in gainful occupations in Chicago. Often daughters were
working. There were thirty instances in which man and wife both worked
outside of the home. Before coming to Chicago 129 wives were employed,
while in Chicago sixty-seven wives were gainfully employed, including the
thirty who were working in addition to their husbands. During the period
of transition, it appears, they helped out, since the records show that 132
were then at work. But the tendency plainly is to abandon the practice as
soon as the family becomes settled in the new environment.
Of seventeen women who had worked as house servants in their former
homes, seven were found in factories, three in offices, two in stores, and five
in unskilled manual labor.
Some of the transitions in occupation are especially interesting. One
oil-field worker in the South had become a shoemaker. A farmer had become
a postal clerk. A former superintendent of a label factory attended high school
during the adjustment period and became an undertaker. One who was a
schoolboy in the South worked in a hotel on coming to Chicago but became a
grocer. A barber in Kansas City became first a painter in Chicago, then a
janitor. A bottler from Memphis, Tennessee, went to work in the Stock
Yards but became a canvasser. A farmer from Alabama worked first in the
Yards and later in woolen mills.
One man was a porter in a store in Mississippi. In Chicago he became a
chauffeur. A fanner from Louisiana on arriving worked as a butcher and then
secured emplojonent in a tannery. A porter in a wholesale grocery in Memphis,
Tennessee, who worked first in Chicago as a lard maker in a packing-house,
later became a building laborer. A preacher from Tennessee worked at
Swift's packing-house until he could become estabhshed in a church.
A Mississippi plumber who served as a butter maker for a time after
reaching Chicago became a contractor within three years. A hotel porter
from Alabama came to Chicago in 1918 and went to work in a steel foundry
and later in a soap factory. A farmer who worked on shares in Georgia tried
work in the Stock Yards in Chicago, but changed to a paint shop. An Alabama
man who worked in a sawmill there found a job in a steel foundry in Chicago,
and later went to the Stock Yards. A man who worked in an ice plant
i68 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
in Texas became a railroad porter after coming to Chicago and then found a
job as a butcher at the Stock Yards.
A man who began life as a bootblack in Atlanta came to Chicago in 1893
and sold newspapers until he could enter business for himself. For many years
he has been a jeweler. In the South his wife was a musician by profession.
To aid her husband in his struggle she worked in a box factory for a time after
arriving in Chicago.
Clerg3Tnen sometimes abandon their profession for more remimerative
employment. One of these came to Chicago from Boston in 1904. For a time
he worked as a fireman and later in a packing-house. One who served as a
waiter on first coming to Chicago became an insurance agent, and another,
who was a reporter on a Negro newspaper on arrival in Chicago, became the
manager of a manufacturiag company.
Few migrants continued in Chicago the employment in which they worked
in the South.
The family histories show that the Stock Yards industry absorbed many
of the migrants, and a large number went to work in the steel rmUs and iron
foundries, as well as in lighter manufactures.
Many Negro women have become hairdressers and manicurists after a
course in a school of "beauty culture" which also teaches the use of cosmetics.
Considerable skill is often required in this work, and the eamiags often supple-
ment very substantially the husband's income and may be sufficient to make
an individual self-sustaining in case of need. Hairdressing is most frequently
done in the homes.
An occasional teacher, cateress, or seamstress was found among the Negro
women. Some of them remaiued in personal-service occupations, but a decided
tendency was noticeable toward office and factory employment.
In summary it is scarcely necessary to remark that wages in the North
far exceed those" in the South. The difference in some instances is so great
that many foolish expenditures are indulged in before the relatively higher
cost of living is appreciated, or other conditions are properly understood.
High wages, supplemented by income from other sources, often proved a
temptation to lumecessarily heavy expenditures for material comforts, such
as food and clothing. With relation to food it did not appear that Negroes
were deliberately taken advantage of in their buying, but that they frequently
bought articles without consideriug prices that had been refused by others
because they were deemed excessive.
Insurance of one kind or another was often carried in the families studied.
In spite of high livmg costs, a considerable number of families were found to
have bank accounts, Liberty bonds. War Savings stamps, and good interest-
paying investments.
The testimony of Negroes who at some time had lived in the South was
mamly that they were obliged to work harder for what they got North. They
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 169
also declared that they were unable to save as much as they hoped or expected,
because of high prices. But in the great majority of cases satisfaction was
expressed over the improvement in their economic situation. While their
movements in search of better housing in Chicago were extremely frequent,
they still felt that they were better housed than in their former homes, where
bathtubs, steam heat, and electric Ughting were almost unknown. Being
accustomed to a certain measure of dilapidation in their home surroundings
in the South, the Negro is not necessarily dismayed by the extent of dilapidation in
Chicago's Negro housing, though usually it is not long before he begins to think
of more substantial dwellings in better surroundings than those he first obtains.
Also in Chicago he finds available and accessible to his home many churches,
some with large memberships and adequately housed; the best schools he
has ever known; fine hospitals and dispensaries at his command; some play-
grounds, bathing-beaches, parks, and similar faciHties for his recreation and
that of his children; settlement houses; Hbraries; and many other civic and
recreational societies that make a strong appeal to his interest and promote
his ambition for physical and mental development. He finds many motion-
picture theaters and other amusements for his leisure hours.
Where the habit has not already been estabUshed, he is learning to make
hberal use of all these faciHties through the guidance and direction of Negro
newspapers and organizations working especially for the improvement of the
Negro group. There are indications of improvement in moral standards,
health, and civic consciousness through these contacts and the use of these
up-buUding social agencies.
The opinions of migrants and their feeling toward the commimity were
soUcited. It appeared that above all they prized the social and poHtical
freedom of the North. Satisfaction was expressed over the escape from
"Jim Crow" treatment in the South. They valued the independence possible
in the North, and sometimes spoke of haviag come North "out of bondage."
They recalled frequently the "shameful treatment received by the Negroes
from the white people in the South," the "intimidation and discrimination,"
and they were surprised and sometimes amazed at the fact that they could go
and come at wiU in Chicago, that they could ride in the front of a street car
and sit in any seat. Satisfaction was also expressed over the fact that they
could get a job at good wages and did not have to buy groceries at plantation
stores where they felt they had been exploited.
Thus, while they may have to work harder and may find it difficult for a
long time to adjust themselves to the environment, few indicated any intention
of returning to the South. In some instances, where adjustments have not
been made, some discouragement was evidenced, and they sometimes expressed
the feeling that they were no better off in Chicago than in their former homes.
The prevailing sentiment, however, was in favor of remaining in spite of some
greater difficulties.
170 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Often Negroes from the South said they missed the care-free social greetings
and relationships that prevail ia the rural South. They thought that people
in the North were "colder," that they did not show sufficient hospitahty.
Asked what conditions they would change if they could have their way,
the most frequently expressed desire was for more and better housing.
Improvement of social, moral, or political conditions followed. Some empha-
sized the necessity of improving the management of the migrants from the
South, whose new-found freedom had led them to become offensive in their
conduct. Interviews with migrants, however, indicated that instruction was
being received without offense from many social agencies on how to act,
dress, and speak in such a manner as not to create unfavorable impressions.
There were some complaints of political exploitation and of being obliged
to live in proximity to gambling and vice that were encouraged by poUtical
bosses in their neighborhoods.
The inquiry showed that membership in clubs, lodges, and kindred organiza-
tions was almost as universal as church affiliation. There were only a few
families in which no member had any association with a fraternity or club.
V. A GROUP OF FAMILY HISTORIES
The general statistical treatment of these 274 Negro families takes away
many of their hmnan qualities. For this reason a selection has been made of
various types of Negro famiUes in order that a rounded picture of the whole
unit may be given. The family stories that foUow include t3?pical migrant
Negroes from the South — common laborers, skilled laborers, salaried, business,
and professional men. They illustrate the commonplace experiences of
Negroes in adjusting themselves to the requirements of life in Chicago.
AN IRON WORKER
Mr. J — , forty-nine years old, his wife, thirty-eight years, and their daughter
twenty-one years, were bom in Henry County, Georgia. The husband never went
to school, but reads a httle. The wife finished the seventh grade and the daughter
the fifth grade in the rural school near their home.
They worked on a farm for shares, the man earning one doUar and the women
from fifty to seventy-five cents a day for ten hours' work. Their home was a four-
room cottage with a garden, and rented for five dollars a month. They owned pigs,
poultry, and a cow, which with their household furniture, were worth about $800.
The food that they did not raise and their clothing had to be bought from the com-
missary at any price the owner cared to charge.
They were members of the Missionary Baptist Church and the wife belonged to
the missionary society of the church and the Household of Ruth, a secret order. Their
sole recreation was attending church, except for the occasional huntmg expeditions
made by the husband.
Motives for coming to Chicago. — ^Reading in the Atlanta Journal, a Negro news-
paper, of the wonderful industrial opportunities offered Negroes, the husband came
to Chicago in February, 1917. Finding conditions satisfactory, he had his wife sell
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 171
the stock and household goods and join him here in April of the same year. He
secured work at the Stock Yards, working eight hours at $3 a day. Later, he was
employed by a casting company, working ten hours a day and earning $30 a week.
This is his present employment and is about forty minutes' ride from his home.
Both jobs were secured by his own efforts.
The family stayed in a rooming-house on East Thirtieth Street. This place
catered to such an undesirable element that the wife remained in her room with their
daughter all day. She thought the city too was cold, dirty, and noisy to live in.
Having nothing to do and not knowing anyone, she was so lonely that she cried daily
and begged her husband to put her in three rooms of their own or go back home.
Because of the high cost of living, they were compelled to wait some time before they
had saved enough to begin housekeeping.
Housing experience. — ^Their first home was on South Park Avenue. They bought
about $500 worth of furniture, on which they are stiU paying. The wife then worked
for a time at the PuUman Yards, cleaning cars at $1.50 a day for ten hours' work.
Their house leaked and was damp and cold, so the family moved to another house on
South Park Avenue, where they now live. The house is an old, three-story brick,
containing three flats. This family occupies the first flat, which has six rooms and
bath. Stoves are used for heating, and gas for light and cooking. The house is
warm, but dark and poorly ventilated. Lights are used in two of the rooms during
the day. The rooms open one into the other, and the interior, as well as the exterior,
needs cleaning. There are a living-room, dining-room, and three bedrooms. The
living-room is neatly and plainly furnished.
The daughter has married a man twenty-three years old, who migrated first to
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then to Chicago. He works at the Stock Yards. They
occupy a room and use the other part of the house, paying half the rent and boarding
themselves. A nephew, who was a glazier in Georgia, but who has been unable to
secure work here, also boards with Mr. and Mrs. J — , paying $8 a week. He is now
unemployed, but has been doing foundry work. Mrs. J — occasionally does laimdry
work at $4 a day.
How they live. — ^The cost of living includes rent $25; gas $5.40 a month; coal
$18 a year; insurance $9.60 a month; clothing $500 a year; transportation $3.12 a
month; church and club dues $3 a month; hairdresser $1.50 a month. Little is spent
for recreation and the care of the health. The family carries insurance to the amount
of $1,700, of which |i,2oo is on the husband.
The meals are prepared by the wife, who also does the cleaning. Greens, potatoes,
and cabbage are the chief articles of diet. Milk, eggs, cereals, and meat are also
used. Meat is eaten about four tunes a week. Hot bread is made daily, and the
dinners are usually boUed.
Relation to the comnmnUy. — ^The whole family belongs to the Salem Baptist Church
and attends twice a week. The wife is a member of the Pastor's Aid and the WiUing
Workers Club, also the Elk's Lodge. The husband is a member of the Knights of
Pythias. He goes to the parks, bathing-beaches, and baseball games for amusement.
The family spends much of its time in church and helped to establish the " Come and
See" Baptist Mission at East Thirty-first Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. They
have gone to a show only once or twice since they came to the city. During the
summer they spend Sunday afternoons at the East Twenty-ninth Street Beach.
172 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Heavier clothes were necessary because of the change of climate, and more fresh
meat is used because of the lack of garden space and the high cost of green vegetables.
The wife thinks that northern Negroes have better manners, but are not as friendly
as the colored people in the South. She says people do not visit each other, and one
is never invited to dine at a friend's house. She thinks they cannot afiord it with
food so high. She thinks people were better in the South than they are here and
says they had to be good there for they had nothing else to do but go to church.
She feels a greater freedom here because of the right to vote, the better treatment
accorded by white people, the lack of "Jim Crow" laws. She likes the North because
of the protection afEorded by the law and the better working conditions. "You don't
have an overseer always standing over you," she remarked.
Life here is harder, however, because one has to work all the time. " In the South
you cotdd rest occasionally, but here, where food is so high and one must pay cash,
it is hard to come out even." The climate is colder, making it necessary to buy more
clothes and coal. Rent also is very much higher here. They had to sell their two
$50 Liberty bonds.
Economic sufficiency. — ^With all this, Mrs. J — gets more pleasure from her income
because the necessities of Ufe here were luxuries in Georgia, and though such things
are dear here there is money to pay for them. Houses are more modem, but not
good enough for the rent paid. They had to pay $2 more than the white family that
moved out when they moved in.
Sentiments on the migration. — ^Mrs. J — • says "some colored people have come up
here and forgotten to stay close to God," hence they have "gone to destruction." She
hopes that an equal chance in industry will be given to all; that more houses will be
provided for the people and rent wiU be charged for the worth of the house; and the
cost of living generally wiU be reduced. She does not expect to return to Georgia
and is advising friends to come to Chicago.
A FACTORY HAND
In his home town in Kentucky, Mr. M — was a preacher with a small charge.
Now, at the age of forty-nine, in Chicago, he works in a factory and is paid $130 a
month. He has an adopted son, twenty-three years of age, who is an automobile
mechanic in business for himself, drawing an income of $300 a month.
Mr. M — might still be a preacher on smaR salary but for the intervention of his
wife. He came to Chicago about 1900. His wife came from NashviUe, Tennessee,
in 1902, and they were married in 1904. Mrs. M — felt that she was too independent
to "live off the people" and persuaded her husband to give up the ministry. He
got a job as foreman at a packing-house, where he earned $25 a week for a ten-hour
day. Next he worked for the Chicago Telephone Company, and finally secured the
position with a box-manufacturing company which he now holds.
Family life. — The M — s have adopted three children, having had none of their
own — the adopted son already mentioned, an adopted daughter now twenty years of
age, and another foster son of thirteen. The latter is in a North Side school. The
girl is in a normal school in Alabama. Both Mr. and Mrs. M — completed high
school. All speak good English.
Wife and husband have separate banking accounts. Living expenses for such a
large fanuly are, of course, heavy. For example, the biUs for food aggregate from
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 173
$42 to $45 a week, and more than $200 a year is paid in insurance premiums. Fre-
quently a woman is hired to come in and help with the housework. Food in good
variety is used. Illness prevented adding to the bank accounts during the year of
1920. An operation performed on Mrs. M — cost $650 and the iUness of Mr. M —
and the daughter consumed between $900 and $1,000.
Housing experience. — The M — s' first home in Chicago was a cottage in the
"Black Belt.'' They wanted a large house and found one on South State Street.
The neighborhood, however, was displeasing to them, and they moved to the North
Side to be near a brother's children. The house was too small, and they moved again
to another North Side address. Again the neighborhood proved distasteful, so
they bought the three-story dwelling on the North Side where they now Uve. It is
in good sanitary condition and is supplied with gas. As lodgers they have the wife's
sister and brother, who are actually members of the family.
Community participation. — ^They belong to the Baptist church. Affiliations of a
secular nature include the Masons, the Household of Ruth, the Court of Calanthe,
the Eastern Star, the Heroines of Jericho, the North Side Men's Progressive Club,
the Twentieth Century and Golden Leaf clubs, and the Young Matrons and Volun-
teer Workers. Mrs. M — is president of a settlement club and a member of the Urban
League. After coming to Chicago three years passed before she mingled much with
people. She had always done community work in her southern home and feels that
her reluctance here was due to the fact that she did not know what the northern people
were like. She found them friendly enough when at last she did associate with them.
Sentiments on community problems. — ^They came to Chicago because they had
visited here and liked it well enough to come back and settle. Conditions are not all
that they would like. They would like to see Negroes allowed to Uve anywhere they
choose without hindrance, they would suppress moving pictures that reveal murder,
drinking, and similar acts that lead young people to commit crimes. They would also
like to see newspapers abandon their habit of printing articles that are derogatory to
the Negro, thus creating prejudice, and of printing items imfit for children. Also
they would like to see better homes for Negroes.
For the Negroes, they feel, life in the North is considerably easier than in the
South, since they can always get plenty of work and do not have to work so hard as
in the South. The mixed schools in the North are especially appreciated because no
discrimination can creep in. The general lack of segregation on street cars, in parks,
and in similar public places also pleases them. StiQ they see difficulties for southern
Negroes who come North to live and are easily led astray. Southern Negroes are
not accustomed to the new kinds of work and are inchned to slight it. This is, of
course, unsatisfactory to their employers and accounts in some measure for the fre-
quency with which they change jobs. This may also account for the fact that white
people are averse to paying migrants well.
A RAILWAY MAIL CLERK
Mr. L — was graduated from the Carbondale (111.) high school and the Southern
Illinois State Normal School, while Mrs. L — was graduated from Hyde Park High
School and the Chicago Normal School. The latter is a music teacher. Before com-
ing to Chicago, Mr. L — was a school principal in Mounds, Illinois, and Mrs. L —
also was a teacher. They are northern people, the husband having been born in
174 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
East St. Louis and the wife in Chicago. They have a daughter, three years of age,
and have living with them a niece and nephew, six and five years old, as well as two
adult women relatives.
Economic sufficiency. — ^As a railway mail clerk, Mr. L — earns $125 a month. He
owns a house and lot in Carbondale and carries insurance on his life and property.
They spend $37.50 a month for rent, about $10 for miscellaneous items, $15 a week for
food, $4 a month for gas, $1 for barber's services, and always $10 a month is added to
the family's bank accoimt.
Housing and neighborhood expenses. — ^In April, 1919, a flat building south of Sixty-
third Street, previously occupied by white people, was opened to Negroes. The
L — family were the first of the Negroes to move in. A few white families wished to
remain and lived in the same building with the Negroes. Mr. L — says : "We objected,
as they were not the kind of people we wanted to live with. My sister-in-law acted
as agent of the building, and the condition of some of the flats was terrible. The
owner was arrogant when the Negroes first came in, but he soon found that we would
not be pleased with just anything. He told us he saw that we were particular and
wanted things nice, and, said he, 'Seeing that you are that way, I'U do the best I
can for you, as I beHeve you will take care of the flat.' The Negroes insisted on the
laundry being cleaned and it is now being used."
The L — family has had three stoves since moving in. After thoroughly renovat-
ing the building and making many of the repairs themselves, the sanitary conditions
are good, and the owner makes no further objection to maintaining the good order of
things.
The white people of the neighborhood objected to having the building occupied
by Negroes. White boys of the neighborhood stoned the building, and its tenants
were obliged to call upon the police for protection. This antagonism now seems to
have disappeared. The white and Negro children play together amicably.
Community participation. — Mrs. L — attends the First Presbyterian Church
regularly and Mr. L — is a member and secretary of the board of trustees of the
A.M.E. Mission. He is a Mason and a member of the Woodlawn Commimity
Organization, which has the betterment of the neighborhood as its aim. He plays
tennis for recreation and goes to concerts and the movies for entertainment. The
children in the family have made use of public playgrounds and libraries. Bathing-
beaches have been sought occasionally, and contacts have been made with the
St. Lawrence Mission, a neighborhood institution.
Opinions on race relations. — Mr. L — thinks that agitation is of no assistance to
the problem and draws attention to the fact that lack of agitation on the part of
newspapers averted a riot in connection with one recent racial disturbance. "Hous-
ing is the greatest difficulty confronted by the migrant from the South." It is his
opinion, further, that the Negroes are not understood, that the white people fear them
until they become really acquainted with the Negroes. "Contact," he says, "is the
only thing that will help to make conditions better. It is just a question of under-
standing each other."
A MTTLATTO
Mr. A — was born in Chicago and his wife in Helena, Arkansas. He was edu-
cated in the Chicago pubUc schools, and his wife attended Fisk University, Nashville,
Tennessee, and afterward the Chicago Musical College.
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 175
Mr. A — is light in complexion and is frequently mistaken for a white man.
Several years ago, without announcing his race, he obtained work in a label factory
and remained for some time until it was discovered that he was not a white man, and
therefore the only Negro in the establishment. The officials, being the first to learn
his racial identity, decided to keep him as long as no objection came from the other
white employees. In a few years he became superintendent of the factory, which
position he held for eight years. He was treated as an equal by members of the firm,
who visited him at his home and invited him to their club. He was also president of
the company's outing club.
A short time ago he decided to enter business for himself, and both he and his
wife took courses in an embalming school. He now has a business with stock and
fixtures valued at $10,000.
Economic sufficiency. — ^His business income affords a comfortable Uvelihood and
a surplus for investment. He has bought one house and built another. These
two are valued at $8,000 and yield $90 monthly. He also owns stock in the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad and a fire insurance company, has $300 invested in Liberty bonds
and owns a $1,000 automobile.
Community participation. — Mr. and Mrs. A — attend Congregational church
services every Simday and get much pleasure' from concerts, lectures, and shows in
the "Loop." Their principal recreation is motoring. Mr. A — is president of an
association of business men and of a charity organization. He is a member of several
fraternal organizations, contributes to Provident Hospital, United Charities, and the
Urban League. His wife is an active committee member of a charity organization.
Opinions on local race problems. — Mr. A — thinks there would be no housing prob-
lem if prejudice were not so marked. He mentioned a subdivision east of Stony
Island Avenue where it is specifically stated that Negroes are not desired. Homes
there are being sold for prices within the reach of Negroes, and he feels that at least
500 Negroes would be glad to pay cash for such homes anywhere in Chicago if they
were given the opportimity. He feels that proper protection should be given Negroes
against bombers.
A TRANSPLANTED HOUSEHOLD
Mr. B — is seventy-two years old and his wife sixty-four. They came to Chicago
during the migration. They had difficulty in finding work suited to their advanced
age and in accustoming themselves to the simplest changes in environment. Neither
of them can read or write.
Home life in the South. — ^In Alabama they owned an eight-acre farm and a four-
room house and raised hogs, chickens, and cows. They both had worked twelve
hours a day for years and by denying themselves even a comfortable home had
saved $2,000. They were members of a church, although they could not actively
participate in church or other affairs of their rural commimity. When the migration
fever struck them they sold their property, drew out their $2,000, and followed the
crowd.
Hom^ life in Chicago. — They first secured rooms and began the search for work.
Mr. B — finally secured a job in a livery stable at $18 a week, but the work was uncer-
tain and the wages insufficient. Mrs. B — went to work cleaning taxicabs. lUness
and frequent lapses in work depleted their savings. They rented an eight-room house
and took in lodgers, hoping to insure a steady income. They have nine lodgers in
176 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
these eight rooms, in addition to themselves. There is no furnace heat; the bathroom
is out of repair, the halls dark and dirty, and they are using their old furniture brought
from the South. Three of the women lodgers came from the same Alabama community.
The habits and customs of this household are unchanged. They go out seldom, and
aU of the women smoke pipes and use snuff.
Of the original $2,000 which Mr. B — brought with him, he has $250 left.
They make no use of civic and social agencies and do not go to church because
they think Chicago Negroes are unsociable. They prize the fact, however, that
work is plentiful for the lodgers, and they have no intention of returning South.
A BAEBER FROM MISSISSIPPI
Mr. D — was a migrant and a member of a party of over a hundred Negroes who
left Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in the autumn of 1916.
He was a barber at home and earned an average of $25 a week. Mrs. D — was
a good housewife. They owned a house and lot valued at $1,000 and furniture valued
at $500. They have two children.
Motive for coming to Chicago. — Mr. D — had always read the Chicago Defender,
and usually got in a supply of these papers to seU to his customers and to supply
topics for barber-shop discussion. His daughter, then a student at Straight College in
New Orleans, was to be graduated that year, and he went to New Orleans to spend a
week. WhUe there he worked in a barber shop. He found that the migration was
being much discussed. One day a man came into the shop and said he was a repre-
sentative of a northern industry that was anxious to get Negroes to come North
and work for it. He argued that the North had freed the Negroes, but had left them
in the South where they had not received good treatment, so that at this late date the
North was trying to right an old wrong and was now offering to Negroes a chance
to work. On the other hand the Negroes were indebted to the North for their freedom.
When Mr. D — returned home he sold his barber shop and left for the North
with his wife and children.
Life in Chicago. — Opening a place of business in Chicago, he called it the Hatties-
burg Barber Shop. It is patronized largely by Hattiesburg people who came up in
his party. His earnings are larger here, but at first his wife was forced to work in
the Stock Yards at $10 a week to help meet the family budget. Occasionally now
she works as a hairdresser. They pay $46.50 a month for rent. Their clothing bill
amounts to $650 a year. Last year they spent $200 for medicine and an average of
$18 a week for food. Their insurance premiums total $6 a month.
Community participation. — ^In the South the entire family was active in church
afiEairs. In Chicago they have continued their church connections, and Mr. D —
is one of the officials at the Olivet Baptist Church. They go to church four times a
week.
Adjustments to Chicago. — ^They were quick to begin adjustment to their new sur-
roundings, profiting by the advice and instructions of their present pastor. At the
end of six months they felt themselves quite at home. They feel the need for
using more careful English and are more formal in their greetings and relations with
persons whom they meet. They enjoy the "freedom of speech and action" allowed
in Chicago, the privilege of voting, the freedom from segregation, and the absence of
Jim Crow laws. They think Chicago is fair to Negroes in so far as laws are con-
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 177
cemed, but believe there should be better enforcement of the laws. They find life
easier here, although there is more work to be done. They feel a great satisfaction in
the more modern homes and other comforts and pleasures they are able to obtain.
Each month they add a small amount to their bank account. They suggest that
Negroes who have became adjusted to Chicago should take pains in a kindly spirit to
inform newcomers concerning the proper deportment. They believe that if advice is
offered in the right manner it wiU always be gladly received. They do not intend to
return South.
A STOCK YAEDS LABORER
A son-in-law of the B — family, also from Mississippi, is employed at the Stock
Yards. His impressions throw light on the adjustment of migrants and on their
views. He said:
"A friend met me when I first came to Chicago and took me to the Stock Yards
and got me a job. I went to the front of the street car the first time I entered one
here because my friend told me to; I would not sit beside a white person at first, but
I finally got courage to do so.
"At Swift's the whites were friendly. There I was in the dry-salt department at
225 cents an hour. The foreman, a northerner, had been there thirty-five years.
He was fair to all. I worked with Americans, Poles, and Irish. But the work was
very hard, and I had to leave. I carried my lunch with me. Negroes and whites
there eat together when they wish. I am now working at Wilson's. The Irish and
Poles are a mean class. They try to get the Negroes to join the union. When the
Negroes went to work Friday after the riot, most of the Irish and Poles quit and
didn't come back to work until Monday. They came back jawing because the
Negroes didn't join the imion. White members of the imion got paid when their
houses had been burned — ^$50 if they had families and $25 if they were single.
Colored members of the union got nothing when their houses had been burned.
That's why I won't join. You pay money and get nothing. The whites worked
during the riot ; we had to lose that time. I lost two weeks. It seemed strange to me.
It looked imfair. They are still mean and 'dig ditches' for us. They go to the
foreman and knock us, just trying to get us out of jobs. The foreman so far hasn't
paid any attention to it. I am working in the fresh-pork department, handling
boxes.
"The Negroes stick together and tend to their business. Some of the Americans
and Polish are very friendly. Everybody does his own work. We use the same
showers and locker-rooms. They don't want us to work because we are not in the
union. One asked me yesterday to join. The Poles said non-union men would not
get a raise, but we got it."
Opinions on race relations. — "When I first came I thought the city was wide open —
I mean friendly and free. It seems that there is more discrimination and unfriendly
feeling than I thought. I notice it at work and in public places. Wages are not
increasing like the high cost of living. As soon as one gets a raise, the cost of living
goes up [May, 1920].
"The whites act just as disorderly on cars as the Negroes. Monday evening
two white laborers sitting beside a white woman cursed so much that I had to look
around. Nothing is ever said about such incidents.
178 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
"Rent goes up whenever people think of it. We have to pay $8 more since
April. Things are getting worse for us and we need to think about it. StiU it is
better here than in the South."
AN OLD SETTLER
Mr. S — was bom in Baltimore in 1851. At the time of the gold rush to Cali-
fornia, his father took his famUy and started out to seek his fortune. They had got
as far as Chicago when his father was robbed and the journey ended. Mr. S — has
lived here since. He has seen many changes during his sixty-three years' residence in
Chicago. When he came here the city limits were Twelfth Street on the South and
Chicago Avenue on the North, and there were no street cars. The Negro popidation
was 175. His parents took him on Simday to the Railway Chapel Simday School,
started in 1857 in two passenger cars by a Presbyterian minister. Father Kent.
The first building occupied by this congregation was on the site where the Board of
Trade now stands, 141 West Jackson Boulevard. This was destroyed in the fire of
1871. The second church was at the comer of State and Thirteenth streets, where
the Fair warehouse now stands. The next site of the church was that of the Institu-
tional Church at Thirty-eighth and Dearborn streets.
Early housing experience. — Prejudice, Mr. S — says, was unknown in the early
days. He has lived south of Thirty-first Street for thirty-five years. They were the
first Negro family to enter the block in which they now live. He built his home
there and has been living there twenty years.
A BASEBALL "MAGNATE "
Mr. G — was bom in La Grange, Texas, the son of a minister. As a boy he worked
on his father's farm, went to school, and progressed as far as the eighth grade. He
was a good baseball player. He played first in Forth Worth, Texas, then in New York
and Philadelphia, and finally came to Chicago in 1907. The highest amount he had
been able to earn was $9 a week. His first job in Chicago netted him about $1,000
a year. In 1910 he had acquired ownership of the team, and now, at the age of
forty, it nets him $15,000 a year. His team has traveled extensively, having covered
the principal cities in the United States at least twenty-five times.
Home life. — Mrs. G — was bom in Sherman, Texas. She completed the first-
year high school at her home. She is a modest woman and a good housekeeper.
They have two children, a son of nine and a daughter of three. Mr. G— has moved
four times in Chicago, seeking desirable living quarters for his family. He owns a
three-story biick building containing nine rooms, the house in which he now lives.
In addition he owns $7,000 worth of Liberty bonds and values his baseball team and
other personal property at about $35,000.
Community participation. — ^Both Mr. and Mrs. G — were church members in the
South. This membership is continued in Chicago. Mrs. G — belongs to an A.M.E.
church and is interested in and helps support Provident Hospital and Phyllis Wheatley
Home for Girls, while Mr. G — is a member of several fratemal orders. City Federa-
tion of Clubs, and the Appomattox Club. Their recreation is baseball and dancing,
and they find entertainment in attending theaters and orchestra concerts principally
in the "Loop." Mr. G — is very much interested now in a playground which is
being established near his home and a tennis and croquet club for young people in the
same vicinity.
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 179
AN OLD RESIDENT
Before coming to Chicago in 1886 Mrs. L — had lived in Washington and Detroit.
Mr. L — was successively a raUroad porter, a night watchman, and a janitor. There
are four children, three daughters and a son. Two of the daughters are married and
have families. One is a dressmaker, another a stenographer, and another an accom-
plished musician. The son is a typist. Several years ago Mr. L — purchased a lot
near Forty-seventh Street on Wells Street on which he built his home. In this
neighborhood the family was reared. Mr. L — died several years ago.
Riot experience. — Although the L — family has been living at Forty-seventh
and Wells streets for over thirty years, and relations between the family and the
white neighbors in the block were cordial, gangs of hoodliuns from other districts
practically destroyed their property. The house was attacked, some of the furniture
was stolen, and some was destroyed. The heavy pieces of furniture were broken up
and burned in the street. The building was so badly damaged that they were forced
to move into a boarding-house for a time.
Community participation. — The L — family lived in a section of the city in which
there were few Negroes, but maintained an active relationship with organizations of
the Negro community. They are members of the A.M.E. Church and Sunday
school and of two fraternal organizations. Mrs. L — is a member of the Linen Club
of the Provident Hospital and is actively interested in the Old Folks Home. Miss L — ,
one of the daughters, is well known in the community as a musician and composer.
A PHYSICIAN
Dr. W — and family came to Chicago in 1910. He had lived in Mexico City
until the revolution made living there hazardous. He was in good circumstances,
maintaining a comfortable household with servants. Since he has been in Chicago
he has had considerable difficulty in finding a home in a neighborhood fit for rearing
his children. He finally purchased a home on Grand Boulevard which is valued at
more than $2 5,000. It is a three-story building with brown-stone front, ten rooms and
two baths, and many works of art installed by the artist, Holslag, who formerly owned
the house, and who himself painted some of the decorations. Dr. W — has spent
several thousand dollars on the furnishings.
Hom^ life. — ^Besides the doctor and his family there are two other relatives. The
physician's income is adequate to maintain this establishment and in addition two
high-class automobiles. Mrs. W — is a social leader and does much entertaining.
She is a patron of community drama and attends grand opera and the leading theaters
in the "Loop." They were formerly Catholics but now attend the Bahai Assembly.
Dr. W — is a member of two fraternal orders and two social clubs. Their recreation
is tennis, boating, motoring, and bathing. He is a director of the Chicago Health
Society. He is an examining physician and a member of the board of directors in a
life insurance company. Both are members of the Art Institute and are active in
supporting the settlements and hospitals of the community.
In addition to her social duties Mrs. W — continues the study of music. She is
chaperon at the regular dances of a post of the American Legion held in the South
Side Community Center; a member of the Library Committee of the Y.W.C.A.,
and is interested in the entertainment of Negro students of the University of Chicago.
i8o THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
They are living in a neighborhood in which several bombings of homes of Negroes
have occurred, but Mrs. W — says that their relations with the white neighbors are
friendly.
A NATIVE or CHICAGO
Mr. C — ■ was bom in Chicago in 1869. His grandmother was part Indian and his
grandfather of Scotch extraction. The grandfather was bom in Cincinnati, and
was graduated from Oberlin College. His father's brother was a personal friend of
Owen ILovejoy and Wendell Phillips. In Leavenworth, Kansas, a monument had
been erected to him as the first Negro captain of a volunteer company. He fought
with General Buckner in New Orleans, was active as an abolitionist, and his wife
was one of the women sent to Kansas to establish schools among Negroes. She taught
school for thirty-six years and was one of the first women in the coimtry who were
graduated as kindergarten teachers. His maternal grandfather bought a home in
Chicago in 1854 and lived where the Federal Building now stands. At the time of
Mr. C — 's birth his father lived on Plymouth Court, then called Diana Place. They
lived for thirty-one years on South La Salle Street, where they owned their home.
Economic sufficiency. — ^Mr. C^ is a graduate of the Chicago College of Dental
Surgery and practiced his profession imtU ill health forced him into other fields. He
has been a clerk in the county treasurer's office, assistant bookkeeper in a white bank
in Memphis, which position he held for two years, and assistant electrician for a tele-
phone company. Now, at fifty-one, he is superintendent of the Western Exposition
Company's building. Twice he has lost his savings by bank failures. He lost $9,000
through the failure of the Day and Night Bank in Memphis, Tennessee. He owns a
house and lot, oil and mining stocks valued at $4,600, Liberty bonds. Thrift stamps,
and carries a small bank balance. His present home is a four-room flat in a building
on South State Street, which contains forty apartments and two stores. With him
lives the farmly of his younger brother, who has a twelve-year-old son. He is a
member of the Baptist church and two fraternal orders. His chief recreation is
swimming, and he finds his entertainment in the "Loop" theaters and the city
Ubrary.
A MlSSOtmi FAMILY
Mr. and Mrs. T — came to Chicago in 1919, the wife arriving one month before
her husband. They had been living in St. Louis, Missouri, where Mr. T— was
employed as a roUer in an aluminum works. Prior to that time he had been a house-
man, and before that a teamster.
There are two children. One is fourteen years old and in the first-year high school,
and the other is seven and in the first-grade grammar school.
Mrs. T — has always been a substantial aid to her husband, and, as she says, she
" doesn't always wait for him to bring something to her, but goes out herself and helps
to get it." Accordingly, when reports were being circulated that Chicago offered
good jobs and a comfortable living, she came up to investigate while her husband held
his job in St. Louis.
Home life in Chicago. — The family lives on State Street over a store. They have
moved four times since coming to Chicago in 1919, once to be nearer work, once to
get out of a neighborhood that suffered during the riot, and twice to fimd a more desir-
able neighborhood for their family. They are not satisfied with their present home
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM i8i
and are planning to move again as soon as a more suitable place can be found. With
them live a sister-in-law and her child, who are regarded as members of the family.
The house is in poor sanitary condition. The toUet is in the yard and used by two
families. There is no bath. The sister-in-law is a music teacher but does not earn
much. She pays board when she can afford it.
Mr. T — is forty-seven and his wife forty-six years old. He is employed at the
International Harvester Company and earns $35 a week for a nine-hour day. He
consumes an hour and a half each day going to work.
Although Mr. T — lived on a farm and too far from school to attend, he taught
himself to read and write. Mrs. T — went as far as the eighth grade in gra mm ar
school.
Community participation. — ^The entire family belongs to a Methodist church.
Mr. T — is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Mrs. T — is a member of the
Sisters of the Mysterious Ten. They have no active recreation. For amusement
they attend motion-picture shows in the neighborhood. The children regularly use
the playgroimd near their home and the Twenty-sixth Street Beach.
Adjustment to Chicago. — ^Their most difficult adjustment has been in housing.
They think landlords should be forced to provide better homes for the people in view
of the high rents.
AN EMBALMER
Mr. B — was bom in Texas, lived for a number of years in Tuskegee, Alabama,
moved to Montgomery, and thence to Chicago in the summer of 1906. His first
position here was that of coachman for $30 a month, room, and board. His next
position was that of porter, working fifteen hours a day for $30 a week. He accumu-
lated a small amount of money, and, wishing to enter business for himself, and not
having sufficient funds to attend a specialized school, he secured a job with an
embalmer and worked for tiim four years. In 1913 he entered the undertaking busi-
ness for himself. He is now buying a two-story brick building on a five-year contract,
to serve as a place of business and a home. The business is young and was begun on
small capital. To establish himseK he exhausted his httle bank account and sold his
Liberty bonds. His eqiupment is stiU incomplete, and he rents funeral cars and other
equipment necessary for burials.
Community participation. — ^Both Mr. and Mrs. B — are members of several local
improvement clubs; they attend Friendship Baptist Church, and each belongs to
three fraternal orders.
Sentiments on local conditions. — Mrs. B — ■ thinks the town too large for much
friendliness. Mr. B — believes that there should be a segregated vice district. His
principal objection to the present scattering of houses of prostitution is that his wife,
who is frequently obliged to return home late at night, is subjected to insults from men
in the neighborhood. He thinks there should be a law requiring that landlords dean
flats at least once a year.
A YOUNG PHYSICIAN
Dr. C — is a good example of the nimibers of young Negro professional men in
Chicago. His office is on State Street near Thirty-fifth. He was born in Albany,
New York, and his wife in Keokuk, Iowa. They have lived in Chicago since 1915.
Early experiences in profession. — ^Through a civil-service examination Dr. C — •
secured a place as junior ph}rsician at the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium. At
i82 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
the same time he passed with high rating an examination for intemeship at the Oak
Forest Infirmary. At the latter place he was promptly rejected because of his
color, and at the former he was asked to leave nine hours after he reported for
duty.
Economic status. — Dr. C — owns a house and lot in his former home, Albany, which
he values at $14,000 and other property and stock holdings valued at $13,000.
Educaiion. — Dr. C — was graduated from the Brooklyn Grammar School, the
Boys' High School of Brooklyn, and Cornell University, where he obtained his A.B.
and M.D. degrees. Mrs. C — is a graduate nurse. He is at present an associate
surgeon and chief of the dispensary of a local hospital.
Community participation. — ^He has already assumed a position of leadership in
the social activities of the community, is a trustee of the new Metropolitan Church,
a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the EJiights of Pythias, Chicago Medical
Society, American Medical Association, Urban League, and a director of the Com-
munity Service, and also an instructor at the Chicago Hospital College.
Opinions on race relations. — ^He beheves that the recent migration of Negroes has
been an advantage in teaching Chicago Negroes the value of property ownership and
co-operation. He thinks the scarcity of homes for Negroes can be relieved by allow-
ing Negroes "as much freedom as the American dollar." Definite suggestions for
improving conditions within the race he gives as follows:
1. Establishment of a permanent medium for imderstanding between the two
races — a permanent commission to act in the adjustment of difficulties of any kind.
This body should be composed of Negroes and whites.
2. Rigid enforcement of existing laws.
3. A systematic campaign under the direction of the commission among Negroes
to teach them personal hygiene.
4. Negroes should join labor imions and refuse to serve as strike breakers.
5. When Negroes do act as strike breakers, the doctor thinks, race friction is
created and labor is cheapened. Negroes can obtain a square deal from the imions
only when they have joined them in sufficient numbers to demand justice by becom-
ing an important factor in the unions. If they are not permitted in certain unions
they should form groups of their own for collective bargaining.
A YOUNG LAWYER
Nimibers of young Negro lawyers are establishing themselves in Chicago, and
their influence already is being felt in the community. A good example of this group
is Mr. J — , who, although only twenty-eight years old, has been actively practicing
law six years. He was bom in Kentucky and has lived in Indiana, Kansas, Ohio,
New York, and Oklahoma.
Education. — ^He completed high school in Kansas, graduated from Oberlin
College, and then went to Columbia University, New York, and received the degrees
of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. His wife completed the junior year in
college in New York, studied art in New York City, and is skilled in china painting.
Home life. — Mr. and Mrs. J — have one child of four years. They live in one of
the 1,400 buildings owned by a real estate man of that district who "notoriously
neglects his property." The struggle to establish himself during the first few years
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 183
in Chicago was difficult. Now Mr. J — has the confidence of a large number of
people, and a clientele which provides a comfortable income.
Community participation. — Mr. J — is a trustee of the institutional A.M.E.
Church, chairman of the United Political League, member of the Y.M.C.A., Knights
of Pythias, a Greek-letter fraternity and the Urban League, and is a member of the
Executive Committee of the Friends of Negro Freedom.
Civic consciotisness. — He thinks that if working Negroes and working white men
can be led to regard one another as workingmen interested in the same cause the
color question will be forgotten. He believes that prejudice is based on the economic
system. With respect to housing he thinks a Negro should, as an American citizen,
be free to purchase real estate wherever he is able to make a purchase; that as long as
artificial barriers are set up there can be no successful solution of the color question;
that a man's respect for the rights of others increases in proportion to his intelligence,
and that the press can be a great source of evil or good in educating the people.
He believes that there should be clubs and educational meetings to instruct some of
the less refined classes of Negroes in conduct.
A MXGRANT PROFESSIONAL MAN
Mr. and Mrs. F — lived in Jackson, Mississippi, until r9i7, the year of the
migration, when they moved to Chicago. He followed his clientele and established
an office on State Street near Thirty-first Street. Mr. F — received his commercial
and legal training at Jackson College and Walden University. Mrs. F — is a graduate
of Rust College and the University of Chicago.
Home life. — The F — home evidences their economic independence. It contains
ten rooms and bath and is kept in excellent condition. They own six houses in the
South, from which they receive an income. Mr. F — is the president of an insurance
company incorporated in Illinois in 1918, which has a membership of 12,000. He
has also organized a mercantile company, grocery and market on State Street, inc9r-
porated for $10,000, of which $7,000 has been paid.
They have two sons, nineteen and twelve years of age, and three adult nephews
living with them. One nephew is a painter at the Stock Yards, another is a laborer,
and the third a shipping-clerk.
Community participation. — They are members of the Baptist church and of the
People's Movement, while Mr. F — is a member of the Appomattox Club, an organi-
zation of leading Negro business and professional men. In addition to membership
in three fraternal organizations, they are interested in and contribute to the support
of the Urban League and United Charities.
Opinions on race relations. — Concerning housing, Mr. F — feels that some corpora-
tion should bmld medium-sized cottages for workingmen. He thinks that the changes
in labor conditions make it hard for Negroes to grasp immediately the northern
industrial methods. Patience will help toward adjustment, he thinks.
He thinks that colored women receive better protection in Chicago than in the
South. His experience in the courts leads him to believe that Negroes have a fairer
chance here than in the South. Agitation by the press in his opinion can have no
other effect than to make conditions worse.
i84 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
B. PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF NEGRO HOUSING
The purpose of this section of the report is to describe by a selection of
types the physical condition of houses occupied as residences by Negroes.
This description includes the structure, age, repair, upkeep, and other factors
directly affecting the appearance, sanitation, and comfort of dwellings available
for Negro use.
In 1909 the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy included Negro
housing in a series of general housing studies. This study was confined to
the two largest areas of Negro residence, those on the South and West sides.
Both of these were studied generally, and in each a selected area, of four blocks
in one case and three blocks in the other, was studied intensively.
The South Side area included parts of the Second, Third, and Thirteenth
wards between Fifteenth and Fifty-fifth streets, with State Street as the main
thoroughfare. The four blocks bounded by Dearborn Street, Twenty-seventh
Street, Armour Avenue, and Thirty-second Street were intensively studied.
It was found that within these four blocks 94 per cent of the heads of families
were Negroes. The buildings were one- and two-story, with a considerable
amount of vacant space in the lots. Half the lots had less than 50 per cent
of their space covered. The houses were for the most part intended for single
families but had been converted into two-flat buildings. Rooms were poorly
lighted and ventilated, the sanitation bad, and the alley and groimds about
the houses covered with rubbish and refuse.
Comparisons with other districts studied showed the following: Of houses
in a PoHsh district, 71 per cent were in good repair; in a Bohemian district,
57 per cent; Stock Yards district, 54 per cent; Jewish and South Chicago
districts, 28 per cent; and in the Negro district, 26 per cent. A study made
three years later by the School of Civics covering the same area showed a
decrease of 16 per cent of buildings in good repair. Five buildings had been
closed by the Department of Health as no longer fit for habitation. There
were leaks in the roofs, sinks, and windows of five-sixths of the dwellings.
In describing a typical house in this area, the report said:
There was no gutter and the roof leaked in two places, the sink drain in the
basement leaked, keeping it continually damp, the opening of the chimney let the
rain come down there, the windowpane in iront rattled from lack of putty. The
conditions in these houses are typical; almost every tenant tells of rain coming in
through roof, chimney or windows, and cases of fallen plaster and windows without
putty were too common to be noted. One aspect of the situation that should not be
overlooked is the impossibility of putting these old houses in good condition. Leaks
may be repaired, plaster may be replaced, windows may be made tight, and these things
would certainly improve most of the houses, but when all were done it would not alter
the^fact that these are old houses, poorly built, through which the wind can blow at will.
Lack of repairs to the houses in the "Black Belt" is accounted for by the
fact that owners do not regard the buildings as worth repairing, and that
TYPES or NEGRO HOUSING
WOOD HOUSES
BRICK HOUSES
STONE FRONT HOUSES
OTHER BUILDING
w.
□□ J L
NUMERALS INDICATE HOUSES MORE THAN ONE 5T0RY HIGH—' '—
THE LETTER 'B' INDICATES BASEMENT ^^s^^^^ sr^i^sr
i
wm
3
^i
Li"k;
| u i;^;i
DWELLINGS IN A BLOCK INTERSECTED BY A RAILROAD TRACK
rcDiiR/9i Sre££r
X
^. £>£/i/eao/e// Sr/e££r.
DWELLINGS IN A BL0C1< INTER5F.CTED BY AN ALLEY
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 185
tenants can always be found, even though it is necessary to reduce rents some-
what. This reduction is indeed notable. The School of Civics found that
while in 1909 50 per cent of the houses examined on the South Side rented
for as much as $16 a month, in 1917 only 13 per cent could command as high
a rental as that; that in 1909 the prevailing rents were $15 and $16 as against
$10 and $12 in 1917.
On the West Side the area studied generally was that bounded by Lake
Street, Ashland, Austin, and Western avenues. Here the situation was little
better. One-third of the families visited in the three selected blocks bounded
by Fulton and Paulina streets, Carroll Avenue and Robey Street were Negroes.
The remaining two-thirds represented sixteen nationalities. It was reported
that the white residents could get advantages and improvements for their
houses that a Negro could not. While 35 per cent of the houses were reported
in good repair, 31 per cent were described as "absolutely dilapidated" and in
a worse state of repair than those in any other districts studied except the Jewish
district. The report said:
Broken-down doors, xmsteady flooring, and general dilapidation were met by the
investigators at every side. Windowpanes were out, doors hanging on single Mnges
or entirely fallen off, and roofs rotting and leaking. Colored tenants reported that
they found it impossible to persuade their landlords either to make the necessary
repairs or to release them from their contracts; and that it was so hard to find better
places in which to live that they were forced either to make the repairs themselves,
which they could rarely afford to do, or to endure the conditions as best they might.
Several tenants ascribed cases of severe and prolonged iUness to the unhealthful condi-
tion of the houses in which they were living.
That there was a continuing demand even for the shacks and shanties of
the " Black Belt" is evidenced in a report made by the Urban League of Chicago
in 191 7 that only one out of every thirteen Negro applicants for houses to rent
could be supplied. At the height of the demand applications for houses were
coming in at the rate of 460 to 600 a day, and only niaety-nine were available
for renting purposes. This was due, of course, to the growing stream of
Negroes arriving daily from the South.
Covering the same area on the South Side as that studied by the School
of Civics in 191 7 a canvass was also made in 1917 by Caswell W. Crews, a
student at the University of Chicago. He found that tenants had remained in
these dwellings in some iastances as long as twenty years after their unfitness
had become evident, because the rent was low and they could find nowhere
else to go. He mentioned the mass of migrants from the South who, because
of their ignorance of conditions in Chicago as to what was desirable and what
was to be had for a given sum, fell an easy prey to unscrupulous owners and
agents. Mr. Crew's description said:
With the exception of two or three the houses are frame, and paint with them is a
dim reminiscence. There is one rather modern seven-room flat building of stone
i86 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
front, the flats renting at $22.50 a month and offering the best in the way of accom-
modations to be found there. There is another makeshift flat building situated above
a saloon and pool hall, consisting of six six-room flats, renting at $12 per month, but
in a very poor condition of repair. Toilets and baths were found to be in no condition
for use and the plumbing in such a state as to constantly menace health. Practically
all of the houses have been so reconstructed as to serve as flats, accommodating two
and sometimes three families. As a rule there are four, five, and sometimes six rooms
in each flat, there being but five instances when there were more than six. It is often
the case that of these rooms not aU can be used because of dampness, leaking roofs,
or defective toUets overhead.
The owners are in most instances scarcely better off than their tenants and can
ill afford to make repairs. One house in the rear of another on Federal Street near
Twenty-seventh had every door off its hinges, water covering the floor from a defective
sink, and windowpanes out. A cleaning of the house had been attempted, and the
cleaners had torn loose what paper yielded readily and proceeded to whitewash over
the adhering portion which constituted the majority of the paper. There were
four such rooms and for them the family paid $7 a month.
In 1920 a cursory examination by investigators from the Commission
showed that the only change in the situation was further deterioration in the
physical state of the dwellings.
The movement of the Negro population across State Street eastward into
the area once occupied by wealthy whites began as early as 1910. Wabash
Avenue was the first street into which they moved. Gradually they scattered
farther east toward Lake Michigan. Following the migration from the
South the Negro area east of State Street expanded to the lake and pushed
southward. The houses which they found in the new territory, although
from twenty to forty years old, were a vast improvement over those they had
left west of State Street. These houses do not permit of any general classifica-
tion, for some are very bad while others, though not new, are in a state of good
repair, largely according to the care taken by previous occupants. Along with
descriptions of Negro homes must be considered the tendency among those
Negroes who were able to move away from the congested areas of Negro
residence. Some of the best houses occupied by Negroes in 1920 were in
districts imtil recently wholly white.
A rough classification of Negro housing according to types, ranging from
the best, designated as "Type A," to the poorest, designated as "Type D,"
was made by the Commission on the basis of a block survey comprising 238
blocks, covering all the main areas of Negro residence, and data concerning
274 families, scattered through these 238 blocks, one or two to a block, whose
histories and housing experiences were intensively studied by the Commission's
investigators. Approxunately 5 per cent of Chicago's Negro population Uve
in "Type A" houses, 10 per cent in "Type B," 40 per cent in "Type C," and
45 per cent in the poorest, "Type D."
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 187
I. "type a" houses
Type A houses, with those of the other types, were not concentrated
wholly in any one section but were found widely scattered; there were none,
however, in the areas which in 1910 held practically the whole Negro popula-
tion. Examples of Type A were found on South Park Avenue between
Thirty-third and Thirty-fifth streets, where some Negroes had Uved for six
years; on Grand Boulevard between Thirty-fifth and Thirty-eighth streets,
where a few had lived for three years; on Champlain, Evans, Vincennes,
and Langley avenues, between Forty-third and Forty-seventh streets, where
some Negroes had Uved four and five years; and on Wabash Avenue between
Fifty-first and Fifty-third streets. In Woodlawn there are a few of recent
occupancy, one of which was buUt by its Negro owner.
Most of the Type A dwellings are of substantial construction, principally
of brick and stone. Some are old family residences in formerly high-class
neighborhoods, built to withstand the test of years. Consequently, although
they have been subject to the usual deterioration, they still afford a fairly
high standard of comfort and convenience. Some are large and exceptionally
well equipped with luxurious fittings and adornments installed by former
owners. Most of these houses were built and owned by people of wealth who
abandoned them. Many of them have since passed through several stages
of occupancy. Somewhat less permanent in their physical aspects perhaps
are the Type A houses in Woodlawn. Many of the houses in this district are
of frame structure, and they are not as commodious as those in the formerly
fashionable white districts. But they provide a desirable measure of comfort,
with less waste space and superfluous rooms.
Comforts and conveniences. — ^Type A dwelUngs are fitted with all the
conveniences required by well-to-do whites. Some of them have more than
the customary one bathroom, have electricity and gas, and are well heated
by steam or hot-air furnaces. One example of Type A housing is a three-story,
stone-front, ten-room house on South Park Avenue owned and occupied by
a lawyer and his family. There is a garage, and the place is kept in good
condition. A twelve-room house, also on South Park Avenue, owned and
occupied by a physician and his family, has two bathrooms, steam heat, and
electricity, and is in excellent repair. Another physician on the same street
owns a three-story brown-stone house, with a garage. It contains ten rooms
and two bathrooms, has steam heat and electric lights, and is in good condition.
For this property he paid $35,000. A three-story brick house on Vernon
Avenue is owned and occupied by a business man. In addition to other modem
conveniences there are lavatories in four of the bedrooms. The house is in
excellent condition. A nine-room house on Langley Avenue, in good repair,
owned by another busitiess man, has gas, furnace heat, and a bathroom. ,
The occupants. — ^Although these buildings are occupied by the wealthier
Negroes, business or professional men, it often happens that others secure and
i88 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
occupy such houses. High wages during the war and immediately afterward
permitted some Negroes who arrived in Chicago during the migration to live
iu the best class of housing available for Negroes. For example, an undertaker
owns such a house on Langley Avenue, with seven rooms, with gas, a bathroom,
electricity, and hot-water heat. This building is ornate and in excellent
repair. A postal clerk who has been in Chicago since 1897 owns a seven-room
house on Champlain Avenue south of Sixty-sixth Street, where he Uves with
his wife and child. In the block south of Forty-third Street on Prairie Avenue
is a nine-room house occupied by an employee of the American Ejqjress Com-
pany. In order to help pay the rent, four lodgers are taken, who together
pay $20 a week. The house, which includes a bathroom, is furnace-heated
and lighted by electricity. A transfer man pays $65 a month rent for an
eight-room house of this class on Bowen Avenue. He earns $35 a week, and
two lodgers pay $50 a month. The house has bath, electricity, and furnace.
A railroad porter, who has been a doctor's assistant and has lived in Chicago
since 1886, owns a house on Rhodes Avenue near Sixty-sixth Street. It has
seven rooms and is provided with a furnace, gas, bathroom, and electricity.
Neighborhood conditions. — Surroundings of Type A houses are generally
far more pleasant than those in areas where the majority of Negroes live.
The streets and alleys are usually clean, except where Type A houses are
in neighborhoods surrounded by poorer houses. The premises are generally
well kept. This is especially true where the occupants are owners. When
space permits, there is a lawn or a garden that shows signs of pride and atten-
tion. One block was noted, however, where the residents reported that the
street was watered twice a day vmtil Negroes moved in, after which it received
no such attention.
n. "type b" houses
Type B designates a class of houses which have not the size, diurabihty,
permanence, architectural embellishments, or general standard of comfort
and convenience of those classed as Type A. They are usually flat buildings,
whether originally intended for that purpose or not. Frequently dwellings
are rearranged by landlords, when Negroes are given occupancy, to accommodate
two or more famihes in place of the one for which they were built. Type B
houses have less floor space, the average number of rooms is fewer, and they
have, as a rule, fewer modem conveniences. Still, they are good houses and
much superior to the habitations in which Negroes are most often found.
Occupants of Type B houses are frequentiy found to be clerical workers,
postal clerks, railway mail clerks, small tradesmen, artisans, and better-paid
workers in steel miUs and Stock Yards.
Most of the houses in the part of Woodlawn inhabited by Negroes are of
Type B. Another district in which this type of house is found extends from
Fortieth to Forty-seventh streets on Langley, Evans, Champlain, Vincennes,
and St. Lawrence avenues. Although in this area a few dwellings are of
HOMES OWNED BY NEGROES ON SOUTH PARK AVENUE
Classified in text as "Type A"
V-l;
AN ABANDONED RESIDENCE IN THE PRAIRIE AVENUE BLOCK
WITH A FACTORY IN THE REAR
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 189
Type A, the greater part of them fall under Type B. About 5 per cent of the
dwellings occupied by Negroes on the West Side — for example, some of those
on Oakley and Washington boulevards — might also be classed as Type B.
Brick or stone dwellings predominate in the districts where this type is found.
For example, the block survey made by the Commission covered twelve blocks
in the Negro residence in Woodlawn on which there were 190 brick or stone
and 119 frame houses. Practically all the Type B dwellings are one- and
two-family houses, and the majority are two-family houses. The Com-
mission's study shows that these dwellings are not overcrowded and house
their families comfortably. Many of the occupants own their homes.
Comforts and conveniences. — Most of these houses have baths, electric
lights, steam, hot-water or hot-air heating, and gas for cooking. Only a few
are heated by stoves or lack electrical fixtures. They were foimd to be in
good repair, well kept and clean. Special pride is taken by home owners
of this class in keeping the property presentable and preventing rapid deteriora-
tion. Family histories reveal that most of the Woodlawn residents are long-
time residents of Chicago.
Neighborhood conditions. — In the neighborhoods where T5^e B houses
were f oimd, no uniform standard of cleanliness was evident in streets and alleys
or in adjoining properties. They were as frequently unkempt as tidy.
Although the premises of Type B houses were generally kept neat, surrounding
untidiness often detracted from their appearance. But a block containing
a majority of this type usually had an appearance of being better kept, whether
the surrounding property was occupied by whites or Negroes. In the Wood-
lawn area the surroundings of the houses were well cared for, and sanitary
measures were commonly observed. In some blocks in the Langley Avenue
neighborhood carelessness and neglect were evident. Vacant lots were no
more littered with rubbish than in white areas of a s imil ar grade.
in. "type c" houses
Type C houses are the most common in areas of Negro residence. In
this classification are included about 50 per cent of the houses on the South
Side east of State Street, most of those in the North Side area, about 60 per
cent of those in the West Side area, practically aU those in the Ogden Park
area, and many dwellings in the little Lake Park district.
Heads of famUies occupying Type C houses were usually unskilled wage-
earners, or in personal service. Their incomes were such that they could rarely
afford more than $20 a month rent.
Types of houses. — Eleven blocks on the North Side were included in the
Commission's block survey. In these blocks 146 of the buildings were of
brick or stone, and 123 frame. Fifteen were single houses, four were double,
and 167 housed three or more families, the largest proportion of such buildings
in any district examined. There were also four rows of houses. They were
190 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
in a fair state of repair. Four-room houses or flats predominated among the
fourteen families whose histories were taken. In one instance seven persons
were Uving in four rooms, in another nine persons were living in seven rooms,
in another eleven persons were living in seven rooms. The dwellings were
mainly one- and two-story buildings, with a few three- and six-flat buildings.
A large proportion of buildings housing three or more families was foimd
also in Ogden Park. In eleven blocks there were 109 such buildings. There
were also sixty-eight single and no double houses. The frame buildings
numbered 189, and brick or stone forty-eight. Most of the houses were one-
and two-story frame buildings. The majority were in good or fair repair,
though one block showed gross neglect of repairs to exteriors, and practically
all needed paintiag. Five-room dwellings predominated among the fifteen
families whose histories were recorded. Overcrowding was frequent. In
one instance eleven persons lived in five roonis; in another nine persons in
five rooms.
In the part of the South Side area east of State Street and between Twenty-
second and Thirty-first streets forty-two blocks were surveyed. Michigan,
Indiana, and Prairie avenues have excellent dwellings, practically aU of which
are stiU occupied by whites. Until a few years ago these were fashionable
residential streets, and the buildings are large, well buUt, and often ornate.
Surrounding them, however, are hundreds of houses, old and difficult to keep
in repair. In these forty-two blocks there were 767 buildings of which 163
were frame and 604 brick. About 37 per cent of these are of Type C.
The surroundings of these buildings appear in brief comments on some of
these blocks, taken from investigator's notes, as follows:
Property has been allowed to run down.
Five vacant houses ; yards full of rubbish ; lodgers transient ; families do not move.
Vacant lot dirty.
Two vacant lots; yards well kept.
Garbage piled up on vacant lot; Negroes moving in.
Roomers move often; one poolroom; empty church building.
Vacant lot used as diunp; yards well kept.
Two vacant houses robbed of plumbing fixtures.
Yards poorly kept; whites moved out three years ago, except one family.
Vacant lot used as dump; one poolroom, two hotels; yards well kept; Negroes
moving in.
Yards tmkempt; mostly renters.
Formerly questionable houses for whites.
Mostly newcomers; property run down.
Yards well kept; boarding-houses.
People move in because they can't find anything better.
Between Thirty-first and Thirty-ninth streets east of State Street seventy-
eight blocks were surveyed. There were seventy-eight frame and 1,523 brick
and stone buildings, 620 single houses, 559 double, 254 accommodating three
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 191
or more families, and nine apartment houses. Of this group 51 per cent were
of Type C. The property and general surroundings showed age and the
beginning of rapid deterioration everywhere; in some cases there had been
attempts to care for the premises and iu some cases neglect was obvious.
The streets, except Michigan Avenue and South Park Boulevard, showed
much neglect, and the alleys generally were dirty. Many of these houses
were occupied by their Negro owners. Negroes were found to occupy about
40 per cent of these Type C houses.
Conveniences. — In these two parts of the South Side area conveniences
and ordinary sanitary facilities are often absent. Gas is the common form of
Ughting, and often it is not used. Family-history data revealed that there
were about as many homes without as with bathrooms. In a large niunber of
buildings families were obliged to use common toilets located in halls or back
yards. The dwellings were out of repair in some respects in nearly every
instance. Defects of this kind were often in the plumbing. Leaky toilets
or water pipes were common complaints. Some toilets did not flush. Some
sinks were leaky, as were some of the roofs. In some houses windows or doors
were broken, loose, or sagging. Some houses were very dirty.
On the West Side a situation not essentially different was found among
the Type C dwellings. Possibly baths were a little more frequent. Occasion-
ally there was a furnace, though stove heat was most common. Gas was the
usual means of lighting. The situation as to toilets was about the same, and
the buildings, being chiefly old, were usually out of repair in some respect.
The nmnber of brick and frame dwellings was about equal. There were more
double houses in proportion to the single ones, and none that had three or
more families. Five-room dwellings were most numerous, and there was
little indication of overcrowding.
Neighborhood conditions. — Only two blocks in the West Side area were
rated as merely "fair," four in the North Side area were dirty, while only one
in the Ogden Park area was not cleaned. In the North Side and Ogden Park
areas distinct efforts were observed to keep yards dean. Premises showed
signs of care and attention, though an occasional vacant lot showed use for
dumping. AUeys in all three districts gave evidence of neglect. Some were
badly littered with garbage and rubbish.
IV. "type d" houses
Type D housing is the least habitable of all. The houses were usually
dilapidated, and in many cases extremely so. Most of the buildings are
among the oldest in the city. They were occupied only by Negroes at the foot
of the economic scale, many families living from hand to mouth, frequently in
extreme poverty.
This class of houses predominates in those parts of the South Side area
from Twelfth to Twenty-second Street along State Street and Wabash Avenue,
192 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
and from TweKth to Thirty-ninth streets and Wentworth Avenue. Many
Negro dwellings in the North Side area and about 35 or 40 per cent of those in
the West Side area were of Type D. Even in the area of the South Side
between State Street and Lake Michigan many of the older frame and brick
buildings fall into this classification. It is safe to say that 43 per cent of the
housing for Negroes is of this type.
Most of these dwellings were frail, flimsy, tottering, imkempt, and some
of them literally falling apart. Little repairing is done from year to year.
Consequently their state grows progressively worse, and they are now even
less habitable than when the surveys quoted at the beginning of this section
were made. The surroundings in these localities were in a condition of extreme
neglect, with Uttle apparent effort to observe the laws of sanitation. Streets,
alleys, and vacant lots contained garbage, rubbish, and litter of all kinds.
It is difficult to enforce health regulations.
Although there has been protest by Negroes against the necessity of living
in places so uncomfortable and unhealthful, improvement comes slowly.
Contentment with such insanitary conditions is usually due to ignorance of
better liviag. For the poorest buildrags low rents are offered to encourage
continued occupancy and to forestall requests for repairs. Prompt vacating
of many of these houses usually follows when a family can secure better accom-
modations in a better neighborhood.^
v. NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS
Among the more intelligent Negroes neighborhood organizations were
found similar to those of white people. Dissatisfaction with local conditions,
failure of authorities to sweep and sprinkle streets or to provide adequate
street Ughting, corner signs, and similar equipment usually prompt these
efforts. Three or four such societies have been instituted by Negroes in
Chicago. One example is the Middlesex Improvement Club, organized
following the riots of 1919 in a neighborhood including three blocks on Dearborn
Street near Fiftieth. Among other things it seeks to promote a friendly
spirit among the people of both races in a neighborhood which was turbulent
during the riots. It has extended some financial aid to its members when
required. It is financed by Negro business men with some help from white
business men of the locality.
Woodlawn has a community organization which reflects the friendly
attitude between the races in that district. Both whites and Negroes are
members, with a common community interest. This organization goes
somewhat beyond the usual neighborhood improvement association in scope
and purpose. While it embodies the usual purposes, it also seeks to induce
full use by all the people of the district of all public and semi-public institutions
that contribute to good citizenship. One of the notices sent out by the associa-
' See "Family Histories," p. 170.
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 193
tion urged attendance at night sessions of public schools. It briefly set forth
the advantages for both young and older people, suggesting that their useful-
ness to the community might thus be enlarged, that they might be trained
for profitable employment, and incidentally that young people could be kept
off the streets and away from demoralizing places. Attention was drawn to
the fact that "business men of the city are seeking young people, both col-
ored and white, for positions as stenographers, clerks, and trades people."
The notice closed thus:
We are desirous that you use your influence to maintain a spirit of friendliness
and good wiU among all citizens, white and black, and especially among the school
children, paying especial attention to the conduct of pupils to and from school. We
earnestly seek your co-operation in these matters.
In the neighborhood of Fifty-skth Street and Wabash Avenue is another
of these neighborhood leagues; all the members are Negroes. Meetings
take place periodically at the houses of members, and special attention is
given to such matters as the condition of their premises, care of lawns, etc.
VI. EFFORTS OF SOCIAL AGENCIES
Social agencies likewise have given considerable attention to the instruction
and encouragement of Negroes in better living. While this effort has been
directed mainly to the newer arrivals from the South, it has also had an effect
on many who have lived in the city for some time but have not yet adjusted
themselves to city life and more rigid standards of sanitation and deportment.
One of these agencies is the Urban League. Among other activities it
issued placards to be kept in sight in Negro homes, graphically contrasting good
and bad habits of living. Pictures showed the front porch of a Negro family
as it should and should not be used, with the pointed question, "Which?"
underneath. Then followed a sort of pledge of conduct:
/ realize that our soldiers have learned new habits of self-respect and cleanliness.
I desire to help bring about a new order of living in this community.
/ will attend to the neatness of my personal appearance on the street or when
sitting in front doorways.
/ will refrain from wearing dust caps, bungalow aprons, house clothing, and
bedroom shoes out of doors.
/ will arrange my toilet within doors and not on the front porch.
/ will insist upon the use of rear entrances for coal dealers, hucksters, etc.
I will refrain from loud talking and objectionable deportment on street cars and
in public places.
/ wUl do -my best to prevent defacement of property either by children or adults.
The guidance and instruction given by the South Side Commimity Service,
pastors of churches and Negro newspapers have stimulated the Negro popula-
tion to efforts at improvement of their property. One newspaper, for example,
conducted a column containing hints on cleanliness, sanitation, and deport-
ment. It printed items concerning objectionable conditions at given addresses
194 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
and warned offenders that they were being watched by the neighborhood
organization, which might take action against them if they did not improve
their conduct.
Another way in which Negroes have been led to understand that habits
of orderliness and cleanliness are expected of them in Chicago has been through
a " Clean-up Week " in the spring of each year, when concerted efforts are made
to coUect and dispose of tin cans and other rubbish on vacant lots and yards.
A "Tin Can Contest" was conducted by the Wabash Avenue Y.M.C.A.,
which offered prizes to the children collecting the greatest number of tin cans
beyond 300. The 1,000 youngsters who participated in the Second Ward
were divided into eight regiments. The eleven-year-old Negro girl who collected
the greatest number of tin cans had a total of 6,840 to her credit. Next in
order was Hyman Friedman, whose total was 5,347. More than 100,000 tin
cans in aU were obtained.
Vn. EFFORTS OF INDIVIDUAL HOUSEHOLDERS
Individual householders, especially those owning their homes, were found
to be trying to keep their premises presentable often in the face of discouraging
odds. Throughout the fanuly histories appear repeated protests by tenants at
the failure of landlords to maintain a decent state of repairs and improvements.
None of the houses occupied by Negroes are of as high a standard, generally
speaking, as those occupied by whites of a similar economic status.
Negroes rarely live in new houses. Virtually all live in neighborhoods
where the housing is old. Negro houses, even of the best class, were built
from twenty to forty years ago. Conditions in these old neighborhoods do
not make for high standards of sanitation and cleanliness, nor the best habits
of living generally; and Negroes labor under a handicap in striving to attain
such standards.
Less attention is paid by public authorities to the condition of streets
and alleys in such neighborhoods than in localities where the housing is of a
higher grade. The streets are not cleaned and sprinkled as often and the
alleys are more likely to be dirty, unpaved, and generally uncared for.
In most of the localities where Negroes live, buildings that have not
already reached a state of great dilapidation are deteriorating rapidly because
of the failure of owners to make repairs and improvements.
Escape from undesirable housing conditions is difficult for any Negroes,
and for the vast majority it is practically impossible, particularly during a
period of acute general housing shortage.
C. NEGROES AND PROPERTY DEPRECIATION
No single factor has complicated the relations of Negroes and whites in
Chicago more than the widespread feeling of white people that the presence
of Negroes in a neighborhood is a cause of serious depreciation of property
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THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 195
values. To the extent that people feel that their financial interests are affected,
antagonisms are accentuated.
When a Negro family moves into a block in which all other families are
white, the neighbors object. This objection may express itself in studied
aloofness, in taunts, warnings, slurs, threats, or even the bombing of their
homes.' White neighbors who can do so are likely to move away at the first
opportunity. Assessors and appraisers in determining the value of the property
take account of this general dislike of the presence or proximity of Negroes.
It matters little what type of citizens the Negro family may represent, what
their wealth or standing in the community is, or that their motive in moving
into a predominant white neighborhood is to secure better living conditions —
their appearance is a signal of depreciation. So it happens that when a Negro
family moves into a block, most of the white neighbors show resentment
toward both the Negro family and the owner or agent who rents or seUs the
property. Whites owning homes in the neighborhood become much exercised
by fear of loss both of money and of neighborhood exclusiveness and desira-
bility. The Negro suffers under the realization that, for reasons which he
cannot control, he is considered undesirable and a menace to property values.
Wherever Negroes have moved in Chicago this odium has attached to their
presence. The belief that they destroy property values wherever they go is
now commonly taken as a vahd explanation of any unfriendliness toward the
entire group. This feeling takes on the strength of a protective instinct
among the whites.
So wide and menacing, indeed, has this feeUng grown that the Commission
deemed it necessary to make a thorough inquiry into its basis and to determine,
if possible, to what degree the presence of Negroes is a factor in the depreciation
of property values. Therefore it is essential to distinguish clearly between:
(i) general factors in depreciation; and (2) presence of Negroes as an influence
in these factors, and also as a direct factor.
What is meant by "depredation" ? Real estate men know it as "a loss
in market value." Market value is "the price which a buyer who wishes to
buy but is not forced to buy will pay to an owner who wishes to sell but is not
forced to sell." Depreciation is reflected, not only in market values, but also
in appraised or assessed valuations. Before purchasing property it is custom-
ary to take into account the surrounding conditions that affect its value, as
well as its inherent value. Assessed valuations, fixed for taxing purposes by
authorized public officials, fluctuate to some extent in harmony with appraised
valuations. This analysis of the factors that tend to determine the value
of real estate for one purpose or another gives a fairly dependable rule for
finding whether it has risen or fallen in a given period. If property is thus
shown to have decreased in value, it is said to have depreciated.
' See discussion of non-adjusted neighborhoods, p. 113, and of bombings, p. 122.
196 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
The value of real estate is deteraiined largely by the human factors involved.
This fact accoimts for the striking differences in value of property, for example,
on Sixteenth Street, on State Street, in the "Loop," on Chicago Avenue, and
on Sheridan Road. Convenience, desirabiUty, and other factors involving
individuals who make up the public enter into the determination of realty values.
It is necessary to distinguish between land values and improved-property
values. Usually buUdings are erected that harmonize in cost with the value
of the land on which they stand. But this harmonious relationship may not
continue; developments in the neighborhood may increase materially the
value of the land, while the value of the improvements decreases as time goes
on. The values of the land and of the improvements do not necessarily rise
and faU together, though improvements generally tend to add to the value
of the land. Much, however, depends on the use to which the land is put,
and even more on the use of adjacent land. That use may be such as seriously
to impair the value of all the land within a given area or some particular tract
in that area. Such impairment is a chief reason advanced for zoning, so that
property values in various given districts may not be impaired through inhar-
monious uses, and that property values throughout a city may thus be stabilized)
It is also necessary to distinguish between "deterioration" and "deprecia-
tion." They are not interchangeable. Deterioration of improvements on
land affects the value of the improvement, not necessarily the value of the land.
The property as a whole may be depreciated by deterioration of improvements,
but an increase in the land value might more than offset this loss. This would
be accounted for by a possible change in the use of the land. For example,
the buildings on the North Side ia which Negroes now live are uniformly
old and bad, yet the Negroes cannot buy them. The properties are in process,
of change from residence to industrial use, and the values placed upon them
for the latter use are far beyond the financial capacity of the Negro residents.
I. GENERAL FACTORS IN DEPRECIATION OF RESIDENCE PROPERTY
Apart from any racial influence there are many causes of depreciation in
property values, the responsibility for all of which has often been thoughtlessly
placed upon Negroes. Throughout the city may be observed blocks, streets,
and neighborhoods running a declining course in desirabihty for residence
purposes, losing value, changing in character and, in short, depreciating, but
in or near which no Negroes Hve. The following are important factors of
depreciation not due to race:
Physical deterioration. — ^The natural wear of time and the elements is a
constant factor. Few houses are built to withstand these inroads over a long
course of years, even though they have the utmost care. Neglect and lack
of repairs and improvements hasten this deterioration sometimes greatly.
Character of occupancy is often a factor. Some occupants are highly destruc-
tive, particularly in rented houses. Their careless or inept use of a house
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 197
often adds vastly to the wear and tear and hastens deterioration. Over-
crowding has a like effect.
Change in the character of a neighborhood. — Depreciation in property
values in large cities is due in marked degree to factors not purely physical.
There is always a continuing yet varying fluctuation in the character of neigh-
borhoods; a restless shifting of population and conditions due to growth
which rarely has been orderly or scientific. The psychological factor of
residential property values is such that they may change very rapidly with
the advent into a homogeneous neighborhood of a few families of a different
nationality or social status. Between Twelfth and Thirty-first steeets in
the South Side Negro residence area, once the most fashionable white residence
section, property values based on residential uses slumped utterly, and then
later began to increase because of industrial uses. Such a change is often due
to an encroachment upon a residential district of commercial or industrial
enterprises. Neighbors wiU move away rather than endure such disturbance
of their peace and comfort. Their places may be taken by people less sensi-
tive to such influences who may be drawn to the neighborhood by reduced
rents resulting from the exodus of former residents. Then rapid deterioration
usually sets in as the tone of the neighborhood falls. A like result follows a
change from an exclusive residential district into one of rooming- and boarding-
houses and large residences remodeled into flats.
The shifting of fashionable neighborhoods soon leads persons of means
to abandon a high-grade residential section for some suburb or newer neighbor-
hood which they think better suited to their social positions.
Use of buildings for immoral purposes. — Such use, though clandestine,
eventually becomes known; and although the property yields high rents,
it lowers the standing and value of the block or neighborhood and of adjacent
areas. It not only deteriorates the buUdings thus used, but also drives decent
people from the locality; and the deserted houses either remain vacant or
are taken by less desirable occupants. Depreciation inevitably results.
Public garages, theaters, and kindred nuisances. — People of a high-grade
residential district do not wish to live too near a public garage, theater, bathing-
beach, saloon, cabaret, dance hall, bowling-alley, or billiard room. If they are
unable to keep such enterprises out of their neighborhood they will sell their
property and find homes elsewhere.
Changes in transportation facilities. — ^These may depreciate property in
two ways: {a) they may themselves introduce obnoxious dirt or noise-making
features or bring in industries with such features; (6) new transportation
facilities often open up more desirable locaUties to which people are drawn
from the older localities. In both cases depreciation ensues.
Overbuilding. — Overbuilding is another and frequent cause of depreciation.
Building booms are often followed by years of depression due to an oversupply
of buildings.
iqS the negro in CHICAGO
n DEPRECIATION ON THE SOUTH SIDE
The area from Thirty-first to Thirty-ninth Streets and State Street to the
lake is now the center of the largest Negro residential area in the city, having
approximately 20 per cent more Negroes than whites.
In the eighties and nineties this area was part of the most fashionable
residential district in Chicago and included some of the city's most prominent
families and business leaders. They lived in houses which they had built
for their homes, and which were the first fine residences erected after the
Chicago fire of 1871. Michigan, Prairie, and South Park avenues and Grand
Boulevard were the most fashionable streets with the best houses.
The Negro population then lived immediately west, between Wentworth
Avenue and State Street and north of Thirty-fifth Street.
The North Side and the North Shore had not yet developed as fashionable
neighborhoods. Indeed, the most prominent residence on Lake Shore Drive
and one of the earliest stood almost alone for many years before fashionable
people settled around it.
As the North Side grew in fashionable favor the South Side began to lose
its original exclusiveness, and its residences began to depreciate. These
properties, while their original owners occupied them, were worth, many of
them, from $30,000 to $100,000, including large grounds, elaborate interior
decorations, and sometimes works of art. The usual range of the original
costs of these houses was from $10,000 to $30,000. The change steadily
continued, and these houses were rented and sold by the first owners at reduced
prices to persons less prominent socially, until nearly all the original families
had gone. A few refused to sell their houses and left them in charge of care-
takers; and a very few stiU remain.
The gradual lowering of the market value of the property is pictured by
prominent real estate men well acquainted with the neighborhood for many
years:
It is a positive fact, an economic fact, that any time a poor class of people moves
into a neighborhood formerly occupied by people who had an earning capacity greater
than that of the people moving in, there is depreciation. That is true whether ItaUans
move in, or Poles, Negroes, Greeks, etc. If the people moving into the neighbor-
hood earn less and have less than the people formerly living in that neighborhood,
there is depreciation.
Between 1900 and 1910 a few Negroes moved into Wabash Avenue. The
houses were very old and built close together, with few single residences.
Negroes did not progress farther eastward in any large numbers because the
next street was Michigan Avenue, probably the most select of aU the streets
in the area. With the pressure of increasing numbers and ascending economic
ability urging them out of the congested, uncomfortable, and unclean dwellings
west of State Street, Negroes could and would pay higher rents than the class
of white persons to which the oldest houses would next descend. In 191 2,
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 199
in the area east of State Street, practically all of the original residents had
gone, and few Negroes had come in. Real estate men estimate that generally
natural depreciation proceeds at the rate of 2 to 2I per cent a year. When
Negroes first came into the area the buildings were at least twenty years old,
and many were much older, representing at the lowest figure a very substantial
depreciation.
There was another important factor in the depreciation of the area. In
191 2 the old vice district west of State Street and immediately northwest of
this area was broken up. The inmates numbered approximately 2,000 and
were by no means confined strictly within the recognized limits. They moved
into the nearest good houses available where they could continue to ply their
trade clandestinely. They could afford to pay high rents, and numbers of real
estate owners profited greatly by dealing with them. As many of these
houses stood, they again yielded rents almost as high as when they were new.
Cabarets, saloons, and amusement places packed the side streets, and buffet
flats opened up in the residence blocks. Raids and prosecution, night visits
from men who did not live in the district, called attention to the changed
character of the neighborhood, and property values sank lower. Pressure from
prosecuting agencies, as well as the attraction of better houses in less con-
spicuous neighborhoods, urged the vice element southward. This southward
trend is indicated in the maps, facing pages 342 and 346, showing the environ-
ment of the South Side Negro.
While property in this area could be bought cheaply it was also possible
to obtaia proportionately high rents by placing Negroes or prostitutes in houses
not rented to either class before. Negroes were always charged higher rents
than were the whites who immediately preceded them.
The Juvenile Protective Association in 1913 made a study called The
Colored People of Chicago and pubhshed it in a small pamphlet. Concerning
the disposition of real estate men to profit in this way, the reports say:
.... the dealer oflfers to the owner of an apartment house which is no longer
renting advantageously to white tenants cash payment for a year's lease on the
property, thus guaranteeing the owner against loss, and then he fills the building with
colored tenants. It is said, however, that the agent does not put out the white
tenants unless he can get 10 per cent more from the colored people.
The fact that for like quarters Negroes pay much higher rents than any
other group in the city was discussed by the Chicago School of Civics and
Philanthropy in a special study of housing for Negroes in 1911-12. The
report says:
The explanation for this condition of affairs among the colored people is com-
paratively simple; the results are far-reaching. The strong prejudice among the
white people against having colored people living on white residence streets, colored
children attending schools with white children, or entering into other semi-social rela-
tion with them, confines the opportunities for residence open to colored people of aU
200 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
positions in life to relatively small and weU-defined areas. Consequently the demand
for houses and apartments within these areas is strong and comparatively steady,
and since the landlord is reasonably certain that the house or apartment can be
filled at any time, as long as it is in any way tenantable, he takes advantage of his
opportxmities to raise rents and to postpone repairs.
It was during this period that buildings could be easily purchased by
Negroes. One white real estate dealer whose interests are almost exclusively
in the area under discussion has purchased more than i,ooo such houses which
he rents to Negroes. These buildings were not purchased from Negroes but
from first, second, and third owners, and at a price much below the original value.
With an opportunity for renting or purchasing the houses in this area,
Negroes began to move in, first in small numbers and soon in larger numbers.
They naturally sought to abandon the generally and often extremely dilapidated
houses west of State Street.
ni. DEPRECIATION APTER THE COMING OF NEGROES
Buildings twenty to thirty years old deteriorate rapidly unless expensive
repairs are made. As Negroes were often unable to make such repairs while
paying for the property, the depreciation continued.
Widespread buying of property in this district by Negroes began
during the period of the migration. Many home-owning Negroes, having
sold their property in the South and brought the money to Chicago, found it
easier to buy a house here on a first payment of $200 to $500, and on monthly
instalments thereafter, than to pay the rents demanded. Few, however,
knew anything of city property values; they were often exploited by agents
or assumed larger obligations than they could easily handle.
Many Negroes purchased fairly substantial dwellings on the long-time
instalment plan without providing for repairs and maintenance. Usually
the monthly payment to cover interest, taxes, and instalment on principal
was about all the Negro and his family could carry, even though his wife's
wages supplemented his. Thus nothing was left for upkeep.
Real estate agents before the Commission agreed that Negroes meet these
obligations with reasonable regularity. One white real-estate broker said:
"Those of us who have dealings with Negroes find that they make very fair
clients on the whole, pay their way, and ask no favors that any other human
being would not ask."
Another referred to Negroes as "wonderful instalment buyers" who have
a " tendency to invest in a home earlier than whites," and said that in fifteen
years' experience his firm had never foreclosed on a Negro home buyer; and
in only two cases, due to exceptional circumstances, had contracts been for-
feited. Two Negro real estate dealers said:
A colored man usually feels that he will go without food rather than not meet his
obligations. That is one reason why sometimes his home is run down, because he
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 201
has spent every dollar he can get to meet the payments on that property. He cannot
spare the money sometimes to buy a lawn mower or sprinkling hose.
A colored man who buys a piece of property in a neighborhood has no financial
connections. He meets his obligations promptly for three reasons: first, he wants
a home; second, he knows they may squeeze him; third, that mortgage is coming
due and he doesn't know where to go to get it renewed. We have no organization of
our own to back him. If the fence is to be fixed or the house is to be painted, and a
year from that date the mortgage is due, and he has $500 in the bank, he wiU not
paint his house for the simple reason that, if he did, when the mortgage is due he will
not be able to meet it. He saves, and when the mortgage comes due he has $5°°)
$600, or $700 set aside to meet it.
Frequently Negroes overreach themselves in purchasing property. Charles
Duke, a Negro, in a pamphlet on Negro housing in Chicago remarked:
A very harmful result of present tendencies is manifested in the acquisition of homes
by colored people beyond their social or economic advancement. The economic
waste in this particular has been especially great. They represent in many cases
a considerable outlay of capital. The domestic facilities they afford are years beyond
the needs of the people to whom they are allotted. In many instances it costs a
small fortune annually to maintain one of these establishments, and when this is
not done the depreciation is both rapid and spectacular.
There is such lack of hotels and lodging-houses for Negroes, especially for
single men, that many Negroes have bought or rented houses with the intention
of paying for them, in part at least, with income from lodgers or boarders.
Such use leads to overcrowding, with consequent rapid deterioration and
depreciation. This tendency . is accentuated by the fact that the houses
that Negroes can buy are usually old and deteriorated.
While new arrivals from the South soon learn that the poorest city tenement
requires better care than plantation cabins, their carelessness meanwhile
contributes to the property depreciation of their dwellings and neighborhood.
There are other factors of depreciation in this district which became active
after the Negroes came, but for which they were not whoUy responsible. One
was the remodeling of residences for business purposes. While the remodeled
property may bring larger returns, neighboring residence property declines
in value. Many fine old dwellings on Michigan Avenue and Grand Boulevard
have been transformed in recent years into lamp-shade factories, second-hand
fur shops, and small business houses; and these changes have depreciated
neighboring property for residence purposes.
Another factor of depreciation is the city's tolerance of gambling and
immorality in and near areas of Negro residence. In most cities where Negroes
are numerous a like tendency appears. Little consideration is given to the
desire of Negroes to live in untainted districts, and they have not been able
to make effective protest.
202 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
In 1916 the Chicago Daily News, in a series of articles on the Negroes,
described some of the disorderly saloons and cabarets in the South State and
Thirty-fifth streets region, with their vile associations of disreputable whites
and blacks:
Other resorts in the district are worse; some are better. These are typical of the
roistering saloons, a kind which would not be tolerated in any other part of the city
since the old Twenty-second Street levee was broken up. White proprietors have
brought them into the district, and many of them are patronized largely by crowds
from other parts of the city. The resorts are forced on the colored people. Those
colored families in good circumstances and desiring respectable surroundings move
away, only to find disorderly saloons trailing after them.
At 301 East Thirty-seventh Street, on the southeast comer of Forest Avenue, is the
saloon of C — . With this exception the district is a quiet, respectable residence
quarter. When it was known that this property was to be used for saloon purposes
a petition of protest was signed by 300 representative colored men and presented to
Mayor Harrison.
At night this saloon is an animated place. Reputable colored families object to
it chiefly on account of the numbers of disorderly white women who meet colored men
in its diminutive back room. In the barroom an automatic piano thumps through
the night until closing hours. On the mirrors are pasted chromos of "September
Morn" and other poses of nude women.
Buffet flats and disorderly hotels are adjuncts of the bad saloons. They make a
better harvest for the police than the saloons. The borderland of a colored residential
district is the haven for disorderly resorts. Protests of colored residents against the
painted women in their neighborhood, the midnight honking of automobiles, the
loud profanity and vulgarity are usually ignored by the police.
In one block between South State and South Dearborn streets which was can-
vassed by the Daily News, five places were found openly admitted to be disorderly
houses. Some were in flat buildings, the other tenants of which apparently were
respectable, some raising families of children.
Many white owners of real estate who speak in horrified whispers of vice dangers
view such dangers with complacency when these are thrust among colored families.
Two years ago a woman of the underworld and her gambler husband decided to open
a "high-class '' resort on the South Side. She got a location as a neighbor of reputable
colored people by purchasing the home of a former alderman and leader in a church,
the one of which the Rev. John P. Brushingham, secretary of Mayor Thompson's
Morals Commission, is the pastor. The woman was one of the most notorious of
the demimonde. An oil painting of her, as she was before her husband in a fit of
jealousy bit oS a part of her nose, for years hung in a saloon of international reputation.
These are some of the influences which the colored population is forced to combat
in its fight for decency and good citizenship. A few secure political preferment and
others profit by catering to the city's vices, while the rank and file are hedged around
by demoralizing influences and the race is discredited imjustly.
Another chapter of this series dealt with gambling in the South Side
district. Here are two excerpts:
HOMES OCCUPIED BY NEGROES ON FOREST AVENUE
(Note pavement and smoke)
Classified in text as "Type C"
REAR VIEW OF HOUSES OCCUPIED BY NEGROES ON FEDERAL STREET
Classified in text as "Type D"
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 203
Colored men are in active control of the gambling situation in the big part of their
district in the second ward. Back of them are white police officials at one end of the
line and white politicians who keep them in power at the other end of the Une. When
second ward, and even some adjacent ward, gambling is discussed by gamblers on
the inside, certain colored men are always mentioned. They are called "the syndi-
cate, " and their approval is said to be necessary if the police are to let anybody run
in the ward.
Whether gambling is a more dangerous cause of demoralization of a community
than are disorderly saloons, buffet flats and dissolute women is an often discussed
question. Gambling is a man's game, is more open, and the connection between it,
the police, and politics easier to trace. In order to gamble the poUce must be evaded,
which is difficult, or made blind by a peculiar remedy for itching palms or by orders
from political powers that be. However, it usually is the same police and the same
politicians who are protecting both classes of vice.
The contamination of these influences depreciates property and casts a
blight upon aU who live within their unrestricted range. The taint extends
beyond the blocks in which they exist and serves to promote prejudice and
ill feeling against the Negroes who are the unwilling sufferers from these
vicious resorts.
There are many landlords who exact high rentals from Negroes for the
use of run-down houses. AU investigations of Negro housing on the South
Side indicated that as a rule the rents are excessive, considering the inferior
dwellings, their disrepair, and unsanitary conditions. This neglect by the
landlords not only directly depreciates the property but encourages a careless
use of it by tenants that leads to the same end. One can hardly expect tenants
to respect property that is not respected by its owners.
Owners and agents of property occupied by Negroes differ in their opinions
of Negroes as tenants and in their ways of handling them. Of course there are
differences in character, standing, and responsibility among Negroes as among
whites, and this fact partly explains the following differences of opinion
expressed by experienced real estate men:
One real estate firm, on Indiana Avenue, that makes leases to both white and
Negro clients, said that property occupied by Negroes was more likely to run down.
Another firm on East Fifty-first Street reported that it rented to Negroes on regular
leases and had no trouble about coEections. A young Negro real estate agent on
Indiana Avenue said that he had no difficulty with collections: about half of his
tenants came to the office, and collectors called upon the other half. When a building
supports a janitor, he said, there is no trouble about repairs, but if the responsibility
is upon the tenants it is difficult to keep a building in repair. The office manager
for a firm on Cottage Grove Avenue said that the majority of its Negro tenants are
on leases; all pay the rent at the office; if they fall in arrears collectors are sent.
A firm which for many years has conducted a real estate business on the South
Side reported that 75 per cent of its Negro tenants are on a month-to-month basis
with thirty days' notice to terminate; and 95 per cent of them are north of Thirty
204 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
ninth Street. A firm on Indiana Avenue requires its tenants to sign leases; and in
districts where there is much shifting about, or where the property is for sale, a sixty
days' notice clause is inserted. It usually sends a collector, so that proper super-
vision may be kept of the property. Its head expressed the opinion that Negroes are
just as good tenants as whites whose wages are on about the same scale.
The office manager of an owner with about 1,400 Negro tenants said that on the
whole they compared very favorably with the white tenants who preceded them;
while some Negroes are careless and ignorant, they all paid their rent promptly; his
office did not average one eviction a month, and when Negroes are evicted they rarely
cause trouble. Quite the contrary was the report of the office manager of a real
estate firm on East Thirty-first Street, which does an extensive business with Negroes.
Much depreciation, he said, can be attributed to Negro tenants; they are much harder
on houses than white tenants of the same station in life; they do not take proper care
of the furnaces or plumbing, and the higher rents paid by them merely cover the cost
of the additional repairs; the recent comers pay their rent promptly when they have
brought money with them or when they receive good wages, but later on become diffi-
cult to manage because they find it hard to adjust themselves to city life.
A firm on East Forty-seventh Street reported that it has a large number of Negro
tenants, makes leases to them, has no difficulty in collecting rents, and considers
them more desirable than the whites who preceded them; a firm on Indiana Avenue
expressed the opinion that depreciation is very great in houses rented to Negroes.
That Negro tenants pay their rent promptly was the experience of a real estate agent
on Cottage Grove Avenue. He has many Negro tenants on leases and is well satis-
fied with them, although he does not think they take as good care of the property
as do the whites; Negroes are usually occupants of old buildings, which are more
difficult to take care of.
Another real estate dealer on Cottage Grove Avenue who leases to Negroes finds
that usually they adhere to the terms of the lease, although they sometimes move
without notice. A dealer on Wabash Avenue, who rents flats to Negroes, said
that he looked up the housing record of Negroes carefully before letting them in, yet
he sometimes had trouble with them. Once he rented a flat to a mother and daughter,
and the next day he found another family living in it; but on the whole he was well
satisfied to have Negroes as tenants.
A prominent official of the Grand Boulevard district of the Kenwood and Hyde
Park Property Owners' Association, which seeks to keep Negroes out of Hyde Park,
stated that a fimdamental fault in connection with the strained relations between
whites and Negroes was the failure of white owners to keep their property in good
condition so that it might be occupied "efficiently," that is, by white persons.
Another official of that organization said that Negro tenants could not be expected
to repair white men's property; that there are a great many dwellings in the South
Side Negro district that ought to be condemned by the city health department,
and, that Negroes are compelled to live in them because they can get nothing better.
In analyzing responsibility for depreciation, in the area from Thirty-first
to Thirty-ninth Street and from State Street to the lake, it is difficult to deter-
mine to just what extent the Negroes are there because of prior depreciation,
and to what extent present depreciation is due to their presence. It is certain,
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 205
however, that a large part of the depreciation is not justly chargeable to them,
and that their contribution is attributable partly to their economic status and
partly to the deep-seated prejudice against them. There are many instances in
which property occupied by them has appreciated in value. This will always be
true when the use by Negroes, or the demand for such use, is higher or greater
than any other use or demand. A symptom of the general prejudice is the
very prevalent belief that if Negroes have once occupied property its value is
thereby "destroyed" for white persons. This is true only until it has a value
for use by whites greater than its value for use by Negroes. So long and only
so long as Negroes as a class are, or are generally deemed to be, at the bottom
of the economic scale will their presence in a neighborhood depreciate values.
At present the fact stands out that Negro occupancy is an unmistakable
symptom of depreciation — an indication that the value of property has fallen
to their economic level, as well as an aid to depreciation in its last stages.
IV. DEPRECIATION IN HYDE PARK
The area bounded by Thirty-ninth and Fifty-fifth streets and Michigan and
Cottage Grove avenues has several property owners' protective associations
for the purpose of preserving property values. Their dominant interest has
been the exclusion of Negroes because these associated property owners
believe that Negroes always depreciate the values of real estate. Negroes
have moved into the neighborhood and there has been depreciation. Therefore
Negroes are the cause.
A complete understanding of the situation requires that it be determined
to what extent property values decreased because Negroes moved in, and to
what extent Negroes moved in because property values had decreased. There
is no doubt that the thousands of protests against the "invasion" of Negroes
were sincere. It is also true that scarcely ten Negroes now living there could
have purchased their properties at the original prices.
A leading real estate dealer said that "when a Negro moves into a block
the value of the properties on both sides of the street is depreciated all the
way from |ioo,ooo to $500,000, depending upon the value of the property in
the block"; that it was a fact and that there was no escaping it.
It's a condition that is inherent in the human race a man will not buy a
piece of property or pufhis money in or invest in it where he knows that he is Uable
to be confronted the next day or the next year or even five years hence with the
problem of having colored people living alongside of his investment. This deprecia-
tion runs all the way from 30 to 60 per cent. Some time ago a survey was made as a
result of which it was estimated that the influx of Negroes into white neighborhoods
during the last two years had depreciated property on the South Side about
$100,000,000.
He cited as evidences of this the increased difficulty of negotiating loans on
South Side realty on any terms, and the fact that some loan companies refused
to write them at all, and loan values there had dropped enormously.
2o6 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
The Grand Boulevard district of the Kenwood and Hyde Park Property
Owners' Association reported an even larger estimate of the depreciation
caused by the coming of Negroes into property near that boulevard. A
committee of the Association in a report made early in 1920 claimed that the
coming of Negro owners and tenants into that territory had depreciated
property values of $400,000,000 fuUy 50 per cent.
The advent of the first Negro famihes in a white district usually creates
something like a panic. The white residents, in a great many instances,
fearing contiguity with Negroes and property loss, hasten to offer their property
for sale and move elsewhere. Even a threat that Negroes intend to occupy
a certain block or neighborhood will cause an exodus of white people, and their
property is customarily sold at a sacrifice. When many properties are thus
thrown on the market low prices are the certain result.
When in recent years, Negroes moved into the Hyde Park district, ani-
mosity was aroused, and numerous bombings of property occupied by Negroes
followed. One of the oldest South Side real estate dealers, quoted in the
Daily News' series of articles in the summer of 1919, expressed the tense
feeling of an association there that was seeking methods to drive out and keep
out the Negroes:
We want to be fair. We want to do what is right, but these people will have to
be more or less pacified. At a conference where their representatives were present I
told them we might as well be frank about it, "You people are not admitted to our
society," I said. Personally I have no prejudice against them. I have had experi-
ence of many years dealing with them, and I'll say this for them: I have never had
to foreclose a mortgage on one of them. They have been clean in every way and
always prompt in their payments. But, you know, improvements are coming along
the lake shore, the Illinois Central, and all that; we can't have these people coming
over here. Not one cent has been appropriated by our organization for bombing
or anything like that.
They injure our investments. They hurt our values. I couldn't say how many
have moved in, but there's at least a hundred blocks that are tainted. We are not
making any threat, but we do say that something must be done. Of course, if they
come in as tenants, we can handle the situation fairly easily, but when they get a
deed, that's another matter.
This fear of Negro neighbors has been used by sonie real estate agents in
promoting speculative schemes. By sending a Negro to inquire about property,
they alarm the neighbors so that they will consider offers of purchase much
below the normal prices. When the excitement has abated values rise again,
and a profit is made.
In the actual depreciation of Hyde Park property there were several
factors, usually overlooked, that were in no wise attributable to the presence
of Negroes. Some of Chicago's finest residences were located on Michigan
Avenue and Grand Boulevard south of Thkty-ninth Street. This was an
extension of the early fashionable South Side district and had residences that
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 207
cost $350,000. But as in the case of the earlier South Side the neighborhood
long since had lost some of its first settlers and had begun to decline. The
World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, was near the Hyde
Park neighborhood. To accommodate the millions of visitors at the Exposi-
tion hotels and apartment houses were built in that district far in excess of
the normal need. The apartment houses, moreover, affected the exclusiveness
of the residence streets. The buildings were speculations. Large sums were
expended in the hope of immediate exceptional profits. Property on Sixty-
third Street sold at the Exposition time for three times the price it could
command today. This is typical of the speculative values that then prevailed
there. After the Exposition the removal of the first residents to the North
Side and to suburbs steadily increased.
The abnormal years just preceding the Exposition had brought in thousands
of workmen, who were thrown out of work when the Exposition buildings were
finished. This and the panic of 1893 made building costs very low and caused
further construction of dwelHngs in that district. Mr. L. M. Smith, a promi-
nent South Side real estate man, described this change at a meeting of the
Kenwood and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association:
The condition that existed after the World's Fair, if you will remember, in the
material yards and the labor market was this: Every yard was loaded up, and the
carpenters and the mechanics that were stranded here after the World's Fair were
glad to take jobs as janitors at $25 a month, in order that they could have good warm
places for their families, and buildings that were put up three and four years after
the Fair, along in 1894, 1895, and 1896, could be buUt at about 30 per cent cheaper
than those that were put up during the World's Fair. The consequences were that
you covild rent a flat cheaper in a brand-new modem building than you could in a
building that was put up during the World's Fair, and as the older buUdings could not
be rented, the owners finally had to come down in their rent more and more; they
got in less and less desirable tenants until finally the whole territory became unde-
sirable.
These first "undesirables" were not Negroes, for Negroes had not then
moved across State Street. And there were other causes for the vacancies
and removals that admitted Hyde Park's first undesirables beside the over-
building. One was the proximity of the Stock Yards. Since the South
Siders could not have the Stock Yards moved, many of them moved themselves.
The railroads along the lake front, with their cinders, smoke, and noise, were
also a factor. Another was the creeping in of industrial plants that located
in and near the district, frequently in the face of protests. A striking instance
of this is the large assembly plant of an automobile company at Thirty-ninth
Street and Michigan Avenue. During recent years the automobile industry-
has practically taken control of Michigan Avenue, once the most beautiful
street of the South Side.
The coming of apartment houses and boarding-houses was another signal
of declining values. It was shown that for twenty-five years scarcely a new
2o8 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
residence had been built on Grand Boulevard, once noted for its handsome
residences — due principally to the extensive building of apartment houses
there.
Racial prejudice other than that against Negroes has operated in many
instances to depress property values. The presence of Jews, Germans, Irish,
Italians, and Swedes has at times been objectionable to neighborhoods of
Americans or of another race. A leader in the movement to remove Negroes
from the Grand Boulevard area gave evidence of this, saying: "I know the
Irish killed a certain boulevard. I know the Jews hurt another one, and I
know the gambUng element hurt another one."
On the South Side the Negroes were preceded by Irish. The original
settlers in the area around Thirty-first and Dearborn streets were mainly
Irish laborers who worked in the lumber yards and mills, the Stock Yards,
and other South Side industries. When they moved westward among their
own people, thirty-five years ago, the Negroes took their places.
Sometimes social or sentimental values are involved iu the depreciation
brought about when a new race or nationality breaks down the exclusiveness
of a residence district. After the Exposition, for example, when wealthy
residents of Michigan Avenue, and Grand and Drexel boulevards deserted their
houses, for more fashionable locations, many of them were bought by Jews.
This operated to depreciate adjacent property in the opinion of those who dis-
liked Jews as neighbors.
How the changes take place was well described by an experienced real
estate man: The original famihes have divided up and moved away; sons
and daughters have married; the servant problem has become acute, making
it difficult to maintain large houses; thus apartment houses have become
popular; houses are older and deteriorated, apartments are new and modern.
In 1915 when the number of apartments for rent was in excess of the demand,
a tenant would spend $25 or $30 in order to move into an apartment across
the street merely because it happened to be fitted with glass door knobs; a
high-class residence at ForrestviUe Avenue and Forty-fifth Street was sold
twenty years ago for $12,000; yet he told the purchasers ten years ago that the
property would not sell for more than $4,000 to $6,000; and that was before
Negroes had moved into the neighborhood. Apartments in that vicinity
still command a price approaching their original cost of building, because the
demand for them is stronger than for houses.
This real estate man made the broad statement that the depreciation has
taken effect, in the majority of cases, before a Negro family has moved into a
neighborhood. There is depreciation, he thought, due to prejudice, when a
Negro family moves into a good neighborhood that has been exclusively white,
but that there are very few such instances for the reason that Negroes prefer
to live where they are welcome, where there is no antagonism. With regard
to the district between Thirty-ninth and Fifty-fifth streets, State Street and
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 209
Cottage Grove Avenue, he stated that the entrance of the Negro had not
appreciably affected values.
Another real estate dealer, experienced in South Side property and in
selling to Negroes, expressed similar opinions. The greatest depreciation, he
felt, was in the expensive residences, and he doubted whether property as a
whole in the square mile centered at State and Thirty-fifth streets had been
depreciated much if at all.
There was agreement among the authorities consulted that in an exclusive
neighborhood of wealthy residents marked depreciation in large residences
has taken place, followed by the introduction of apartment buildings. One
of the men who had earnestly opposed Negro entrance into the Grand Boulevard
district recalled when valuations on Grand and Drexel boulevards were from
$400 to $600 a front foot; then they fell to $125 or $150 a foot; andthengradu-
ally climbed back to $175 or $200 a foot on account of the introduction of
apartment buildings.
Such variations in value are the usual accompaniment of unguided growth
in a large city. This imguided development brought depreciation, which was
manifest before Negroes began to make their appearance in the area.
The spread of clandestine prostitution, discussed in connection with the
area north of Thirty-ninth Street, did not stop at Thirty-ninth Street. As the
environment maps radicate,' there was a noticeable increase from 1916 to
1918 in the nvunber of houses or flats used by prostitutes in the area south of
Thirty-ninth Street. These changes occurred before the spread of the Negro
population reached the neighborhood. Two houses, for example, at 4404
and 4406 Grand Boulevard, bought by a Negro woman and bombed four times
after she moved in, had been occupied by prostitutes just prior to her purchase.
The coming of Negroes. — In 1916 hundreds of buildings in the Hyde Park
area stood vacant and had been so for some time. Owners and real estate
men were offering large concessions in the effort to get tenants. Values had
fallen greatly. A prominent real estate man closely in touch with the neighbor-
hood estimated that 25 per cent of the buildings there were vacant, and that
there was little prospect of renting or selling them. Coincident with this
oversupply in Hyde Park was an acute demand among Negroes for houses,
intensified by the sudden addition of about 50,000 migrants. Many of them
had sold their property in the South and brought the money with them. Hyde
Park landlords were willing to sell or rent to them rather than lose their property
entirely. Many Negroes, however, instead of renting, purchased the properties
because of the exceptional terms offered.
This continued for about two years, when a demand for houses again arose
among the white population. There was inactivity in building throughout the
war period. Chicago was sharing in the housing shortage which affected the
whole coimtry, which was estimated in the early part of 1921 at 50,000 houses.
'See pp. 342 and 346.
iio THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
As the demand of whites for housing became acute, Hyde Park ovmers began
to feel that their property was at a disadvantage due to the presence of
Negroes.
Plans for beautifying the lake front and improving Hyde Park were
emphasized as a reason for holding on to property there. Alderman Schwartz,
in addressing a meeting of the Grand Boulevard district of the Kenwood and
Hyde Park Property Owners' Association, said:
The South Side, and Hyde Park and Kenwood in particular, in past years has been
the choice residential section of Chicago, the show place of Chicago. Grand Boule-
vard is the most magnificent street in the world, the finest boulevard of our wonderful
boulevard system. I know that for many, many years, in this town, it was the
ambition of people hving in other parts of the city to arrange matters so that they
could have their homes on the South Side in the place where you now live.
We have seen the rapid deterioration. In the council and in the committees we
have decided that we must do something. The law has some very definite limitations
written into our constitution and statutes. It cannot afford any rehef. You your-
selves must resurrect the South Side.
As one instance of what we attempted to do in the way of assuring to the people
who reside here that the South Side can and will continue to be the great place we live
in, we passed the Lake Front Ordinance. You people probably never realized what
a wonderful thing that will be for the South Side. It will take in the lake front from
Twelfth Street south to Fifty-first; it will affect the very choicest residential district
in Chicago, the territory between Thirty-ninth Street and Forty-seventh Street —
in this portion of the ward where we now are, something like $125,000,000 wiU be
expended in reclaiming the lake front for you people, you men and women who must
stand together to save your homes, see that your homes are kept as fine places to
live in, that your neighbors are kept the most desirable neighbors in the city of Chicago,
so that you may enjoy the benefit of that wonderful improvement that is to come.
Think of that tremendous stretch, from Thirty-ninth to Forty-seventh, of bathing
facilities, the fiinest in the world. More than a year and a half ago an estimate was
made of the loss in property values in the Oakland district, north of Forty-third
Street, and that was estimated to be $100,000,000. Now it is not only the loss of
money that interests us. It means not only that somebody has lost a certain amount
of wealth, but it means that somebody has lost comfort Lu hving; someone has lost
joy in his home; someone has lost the opportunity to give his children the environ-
ment that he wanted to give.
A survey made by the Hyde Park Property Owners' Association in 1920
showed that there were then 3,300 property owners in the area bounded by
Thurty-ninth and Fifty-fifth streets, Michigan Avenue and Cottage Grove
Avenue, and that of this number i ,000 were Negroes. Then began the attempts
to move Negroes' back into "their own neighborhood."
Many of the Negroes who moved into this area had substantial resources
enabhng them either to buy property outright or so to arrange for payments
through instalments and mortgages as to render themselves secure against
' See "Contested Neighborhoods," p. 116.
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 211
efforts to remove them. But in so doing they further comphcated the status
of the neighborhood. Few white persons recognize the marked differences
among Negroes, so that in purely commercial dealings they are not as careful
in selecting Negro tenants as they would be among whites. As a result some
Negroes who secured property there proved damaging to property values, just
as would persons of a similar type from any other race.
Many of the houses for sale or rent were not suited to the incomes of
ordinary wage-earners. White persons whose incomes were sufficient to pay
the rental for such large houses preferred a different sort of house or neighbor-
hood; and whites of smaller incomes could find more suitable houses elsewhere;
while Negroes, hard pressed for houses, rented them, and took lodgers to fill
them and help pay the rent.
The exclusive occupancy of a block by Negroes is usually followed by less
care of streets and alleys. This neglect is general between Twenty-second
and Thirty-ninth streets and is beguining to appear in the territory between
Thirty-ninth and Forty-third streets where recently blocks have been " turned
over" to Negroes. Community associations are being formed in some of
these areas to protest against this laxity, and stimulate neighborhood interest
in neat premises.
Appreciation of property. — ^When values fall extremely due to a selling
panic among white owners, it is often followed by a decided recovery as the
Negro demand grows. Such a new market among Negroes, however, seems never
to have been strong enough to send prices for residence purposes back to origi-
nal levels. But many instances have shown that prices rarely stay at the
low "panic" level and frequently rebound to a level much above that at which
panic sales were made. Mr. Gates, a prominent South Side real estate dealer,
said: "If a Negro family locates m a street where the population is all white,
values are cut in two, but this would not be likely to occur if a large number
of Negroes were ready and willing to buy adjacent property at established
prices. Supply and demand would rule in such a market." Other real
estate dealers expressed the opinion that "if the white owners were not over-
anxious to sell when the Negro 'invasion' begins, they might later on obtain
as much or more for their property than they could have obtained before the
advent of the Negroes."
In numerous cases Negroes created a market for property when there was
none. A prominent white business man long resident on the South Side told
of a row of houses on South Park Avenue and Grand Boulevard that were
vacant for years until sold or rented to Negroes: they could not be sold at
all until they took on a value because Negroes were ready to buy them.
A prominent Negro physician bought a piece of property in an exclusive
white Hyde Park neighborhood. He lived there seven years and then sold
the property at an advance, and, to his knowledge, there had been no deprecia-
tion in adjacent property.
212 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
A white real estate dealer bought a house in Grand Boulevard between
Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth streets about five years ago. When Negro
residents came some of the white people sold at a sacrifice. But he remained
and four years later sold the property for $2,000 above its cost to him.
An interesting instance related to property on Langley Avenue into which
a Negro family moved in 1919. The value of contiguous property remained
the same as of property two and three blocks east where no Negroes Hved.
Six months later, across the street from this Negro family, a white man,
aware of their occupancy, bought a house and paid $1,500 more than it had
formerly been gffered for.
Thus, notwithstanding the prejudice against Negro neighbors that usually
obtains, a block or neighborhood into which Negroes move is not always and
necessarily depreciated, so many and active are the other factors contributing
to depreciation (or sometimes preventing) ; and so frequently has it occurred
that these factors of depreciation have operated extensively prior to the arrival
of Negroes.
The fluctuation of values in response to sentiment, both inherent and
stimulated, manifested itself in a practice of certain real estate dealers on the
South Side. Although it was stated and believed that values were irrevocably
destroyed when a Negro family occupied a building, these agents boosted values
by announcing that another building had been "saved" or "redeemed,"
thoroughly renovated, and restored to its "rightful occupants." The Kenwood
and Hyde Park Property Owners' Association stated that this plan had
succeeded in sixty-eight instances of buildings "reclaimed" by the Association.
A Prairie Avenue block. — To study the processes and factors of depreciation
the Commission selected an obviously depreciated block on the once fashionable
Prairie Avenue, between Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth streets, into which no
Negroes had yet moved.
In 1885-90 Prairie Avenue was one of Chicago's most fashionable and
exclusive residential streets. Imposing brown- and gray-stone residences,
with balconies of stone and ornamental iron, broad bay-windows, and large
well-kept lawns behind high iron fences, gave evidence of the wealth and social
position of their owners.
The gradual decline of Prairie Avenue, as North Side and North Shore
neighborhoods became more fashionable places of residence, and long before
the approach of Negroes was even thought of, was exemplified in this block.
Chicago Blue Book, a broadly inclusive social directory, published annually,
shows that in 1890 the families living at forty-nine of the sixty-one addresses
in the block were listed; in 1900 there were eighteen of the forty-nine left;
in 1910 there were only ten, and in 1915 only two. Second and third occupants
of the houses took the places of fifteen of the original forty-nine in 1900, of
nine in 1910, and of four in 1915. The Blue Book listings at five-year intervals
are shown in the table on the following page.
A CHANGING NEIGHBORHOOD
WOOD H0U5E5 W¥^
BRICK HOUSES ^M
STONE FRONT HOUSES ^^
OTHER BUILDINGS □□
/f/D/>1///? ^i/£//e/£.
Cyfii/ATsr /^i/c/zi/j:
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM
213
From 1895 on, those who moved away were to be found scattered all the
way from Lake Shore Drive to Lake Forest. The newcomers who took
their places appeared decreasingly in the Blue Book and more and more fre-
quently they had Irish or Jewish names.
A closer examination of the changing occupancy of the sixty-one houses
in the block shows strikingly the rapidity and extent of the decline and reveals
some of its causes.
"BLUE BOOK" LISTINGS IN PRAIRIE AVENUE BLOCK
Year
Number of Houses
Listed with no
Change in Occu-
pants
Number of Houses
Not Listed
Number of Houses
with Second and
Third Occupants
Listed
1890.
189s
1900
1905
1910
191S
49
26
18
12
10
2
25
28
36
41
54
10
15
13
9
4
The residents. — In a house with fifty feet frontage on Prairie Avenue lived
a wealthy artist, son of a Chicago pioneer merchant and member of several
exclusive clubs. He lived there imtil a large brick factory wis erected at the
rear of his residence which is now occupied by a medical fraternity. A promi-
nent Chicago famUy lived in another house which they had built in 1885.
In i8go, they moved to Cleveland and rented the property. For sentimental
reasons they kept the property, although it was fast sinking in value. In 1919
a son living in Lake Forest proposed to remodel and improve the property,
if by reasonable expenditures he could be assured by real estate men of "desir-
able" tenants. No real estate man felt able to do this, however, and the
deterioration and depreciation were uninterrupted.
Another residence, formerly occupied by a capitaUst and journalist siace
1890, was a large two-story house with basement and attic and two-story brick
bam. The family long since moved to the North Side, and the old mansion on
Prairie Avenue is now a rooming-house of thirty-eight rooms, including the
garage.
At another address lived the president of a large business corporation,
in a two-story stone-front building. It is now cut up into flats; and in the
window recently was a sign: "4th Flat for Rent, 6 Rooms, $20.00, White Only."
Only one or two of the fine old residences in this block are still occupied
by Chicago's "first families" or owned by their estates.
There are now two relatively modem three- and four-story brick apartment
buildings in the block, and five old residences are rooming-houses. One is a
club for railroad men, and another is a fraternity house. About a third of the
places are in fairly good repair.
214 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
The altered character of the block is revealed also in the number of persons
now at each address. The polling lists for March, 1920, disclose that fourteen
persons are registered from one address, ten from another, seven from another,
six each from three others, and so on, indicating more advdts than are usually
found in a single family. These are probably roomers.
The problem, however, is a complex one, for, although no Negroes moved
into this block, they occupied parts of neighboring blocks during that period,
and their occupancy contributed to the final stage of depreciation.
The picture in neighboring Calumet Avenue is not essentially different;
perhaps the early occupants represented fewer of the "first families," and the
deterioration is more obvious.
The evidences of the oncoming of commerce and industry from the north
are numerous and inescapable. In this and adjoining blocks are now garages,
an auto-repairing shop, the South Side Dispensary of the Municipal Tubercu-
losis Sanitarium, a factory for grinding bearings, and a carpentry and glazing
shop. An auto-laundry otcupies the old church building.
This area is a comparatively short distance from the "Loop." In real
estate parlance it is known as "close-in" property. A former president of
the Chicago Real Estate Board stated that a large part of this "close-in"
property depreciated because of its change from residential to commercial
property. He mentioned Prairie and Calumet avenues, north of Thirty-first
Street — which includes the block studied. The depreciation, he asserted, was
also due to the "departure of many owners of costly homes to other districts."
With the city's growth, transportation became an increasingly influential
factor. The automobile made it easy to reach the business center from
outlying and suburban regions. It thus became less desirable to live near the
"Loop," particularly as such districts are susceptible to changes that may
quickly destroy an exclusive residence district.
The rapidly developing automobile industry gravitated very largely to
this part of the South Side. Its salesrooms, shops for the sale of accessories,
and kindred business places spread along Michigan Avenue from Twelfth to
Thirty-fifth street. Michigan Avenue is only two blocks west of Prairie
Avenue and one block west of Indiana Avenue. Garages, repair shops,
welding factories, and the like accompanied this invasion, and spread into
adjoining streets. For instance, on an Indiana Avenue comer a large eight-
story factory was built immediately adjoining the rear of a handsome Prairie
Avenue residence, and a one and one-half story garage and repair shop was
built in the rear of 2900 Prairie Avenue. Just northeast of the block are
factories and breweries with their noise, smoke, and heavy traffic; and from
the west and south Negroes have recently been approaching— long after these
other factors were operating.
A peculiar fact about the property in this block and northward on Prairie
Avenue is that the lots are long and narrow, and the houses are built to the
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 215
side lines. These lots, when threatened with encroachment by factories and
the automobile industry, lost their residence value but did not easily take on
a new industrial value because they were individually owned and it required
several lots to make a suitable industrial site. The owners, though not desiring
to live there, were yet loath to sell as cheaply as the individual strip sales would
make necessary. And no investor would buy a single lot for industrial pur-
poses unless certain of getting two or three others adjoining.
In 1910 land values on Prairie Avenue between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-
eighth streets were $250 a front foot; and from Twenty-ninth to Thirtieth
streets, $200; on Indiana Avenue between Twenty-sixth and Twenty-eighth
streets, $200, and between Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth streets $175. In 1920,
however, values had dropped on Prairie Avenue to $60 a front foot while on
Indiana Avenue, a semi-business street, they were $150 and $180.' Negroes
first moved into the block on Prairie Avenue between Thirtieth and Thirty-
first streets about 191 7, though very few lived there at the time of the inquiry
in 1920. In 1919 they purchased an abandoned church in this block which
at one time was valued at $125,000.
To summarize the results of this investigation of depreciation: Negro
occupancy depreciates the value of residence property in Chicago because of
the prejudice of white people against Negroes, and because white people will
not buy and Negroes are not financially able to buy, at fair market prices
property thrown upon the market when a neighborhood commences to
change from white to Negro occupancy; nevertheless a large part of the
depreciation of residence property often charged to Negro occupancy comes
from entirely different causes.
D. FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF NEGRO HOUSING
I. NEGRO PROPERTY CONSIDERED A POOR RISK
An important factor in the housing problem is the low security rating
given by real estate loan concerns to property tenanted by Negroes. Because
of this Negroes are charged more than white people for loans, find it more
difi&cult to secure them, and thus are greatly handicapped in efforts to buy or
improve property. The general opinion that condemns such property makes
the risk poor, even for Negroes. A Chicago Trust Company representative said :
A Negro called to buy a mortgage. Our first thought was to submit to him one
of the colored loans, which we did. We showed him a photograph; he liked the
appearance of the building, and then he inquired, "Is this anywhere near the colored
district?" He declined the loan on that account, showing that this uneasiness is
not confined to the white investor.
When districts become exclusively Negro this reluctance to invest or to
lend invariably appears. If there are sufficient Negroes with money to create
' Olcott's "Land Value Maps," 1910 and 1920.
2i6 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
a market the loss is somewhat reUeved. Yet, deprived of the usual facilities
for purchasing a home, they camiot reUeve their housing shortage and are
forced to seek houses in unfriendly neighborhoods.
The factors are similar to those in depreciation, often based on prejudices
and erroneous beliefs concerning Negroes. Whatever depreciates real estate
necessarily depresses its security value — whether the cause be fact or opinion.
A South Side bank had difficulty in selling Negro loans to white Jjeople because
" they say they don't keep up the property; they let it deteriorate; they don't
improve it." The representative of another bank said:
I don't believe you could find enough colored people who coidd make a substantial
first payment. There are a few that I have talked with recently who are on the
police force, who wanted to know how we could help them out in buying places. One
had in mind the purchase of a three-flat building; the price was around eight or nine
thousand dollars. There was a first mortgage on it of about five. He had only
$300 cash to buy it with.
A former president of the Chicago Real Estate Board said:
The percentage of Negro people in Chicago who will buy homes is comparatively
small. The best evidence we have is that 85 per cent of the white people are tenants;
I s per cent of them are home owners. It follows, I think, that a smaller percentage of
the colored race wiU buy homes, not more than from 3 to 5 per cent of the colored
people at the present time.
A representative of a very large South Side realty business said: "There are
ever so many mortgage men not famihar with the colored belt. That's one
of their greatest reasons for refusing the loans — they are not familiar with the
values."
Real estate men, white and Negro, were invited to present their views,
and leading mortgage-loan houses and banks of the city were asked what they
knew about Negroes as borrowers, investors, tenants, and clients, and their
thrift and care of property. Their testimony, with the Commission's investi-
gations, yielded a fairly accurate picture.
n. NEGROES AS HOME OWNERS
The first house in Chicago was a rude cabin built by a Negro in 1790.
There were several Negro home owners when the city was incorporated in
1837. The first Negroes to settle near Thirtieth Street — ^long before the city
had extended its limits that far — owned their homes. Although prior to 1916
most Negroes did not own homes, there were many, especially business and
professional men, who had gradually acquired dweUiugs. The migration
brought thousands of Negroes with ready cash who found it easy to buy dwell-
ings on the South Side. The xmcomfortable and inadequate dwelliugs of the
"Black Belt" could be avoided only by the purchase of property elsewhere.
Attention thus was directed, probably for the first time, to the question of home
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 217
buying by Negroes. Indeed home owning is an essential feature of any solu-
tion of their housing difficulties.
Until the migration Chicago's Negroes had engaged chiefly in personal-
service occupations that governed somewhat the location of their homes;
when these were not in the "Black Belt" they were in shabby property in
undesirable streets near their employment. Men who worked on dining- and
sleeping-cars lived near the railroad stations — on State and Dearborn streets,
Plymouth Place, and the surrounding neighborhood; they were generally
renters and moved southward with the general trend.
Home buying stimulated by high wages and the migration. — ^The war brought
wages to the Negroes that seemed fabulous to many; and the wages brought
the migration. The first migrants were mostly drifters. Then came a great
many who had acquired considerable substance in the South, and having sold
out they came to Chicago with ready money, in some instances large amounts.
This class of Negroes bought dwellings. Several of them bought apartment
buildings, said a real estate dealer, and in one instance the buyer paid $10,000
in cash; and there were very many who were able and ready to pay from $1,000
to $3,000 on the purchase of a residence in a respectable neighborhood.
Another dealer said that he was not able to supply the buying demand:
"We have put renters on the side list; buyers are taking up the time. We
used to think $500 a good-sized payment for them, but now they often have
$3,000, $4,000, or $6,000. A Negro customer lately wanted a twelve-flat build-
ing and would pay cash."
"The average newcomer is a home-owner," said another realty dealer;
"he has sold his home in the South to come here. Some say the high wages
are not attracting them so much as better schools."
Another dealer said that the average amount per family brought from the
South was from $300 to $500, and he knew of one family that brought $6,000.
It was the experience of another firm that three or four years ago Negro
purchasers paid down about $500, but that now (1920) they frequently make
first payments of $1,000 or more.
This sudden wave of home buying impressed Carl Sandburg, who wrote
(1919) in the Chicago Daily News:
Twenty years ago fewer than fifty families of the colored race were home owners
in Chicago. Today they number thousands, their purchases ranging from $200 to
$20,000, from tar paper shacks in the still district to brownstone and greystone estab-
lishments with wealthy or well-to-do white neighbors. In most cases, where a colored
man has iuvestments of more than ordinary size, it is in large part in real estate.
Realty iavestment and management seems to be an important field of operation
among those colored people who acquire substance.
Several other factors contributed to this house-buying movement. One
was that Hyde Park had many available houses in the early years of the war,
while the Negro was excluded from the market west of Wentworth Avenue,
2i8 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
with its smaller and less expensive houses, by the vigorous antagonism of the
Irish and other people living there. The southern Negroes were glad to find
that — at first, anyway — access was not denied them to districts having good
schools, churches, recreation and amusements, and convenient transportation
facilities. This feeling was reflected in their purchase of churches; two of
these, one on Washington Boulevard and one on Prairie Avenue, are in dis-
tricts of extensive home buying by Negroes.
The high war wages contributed to home buying. Though in many
instances they induced extravagant expenditures, a surplus remained for many,
and with the frugal the savings were large.
High rents were another primary contribution. Many of the ambitious
newcomers figured that they could buy a house for about the same monthly
amounts required for rent. In many instances they thriftily contrived to
make the property pay for itself. Two- and three-flat buildings would furnish
a family with a home while providing a considerable revenue from the rented
flats. When old-fashioned houses too large for one family were bought,
lodgers and boarders were often taken. Frequently wife and children added to
the family income so that they might own a home.
A real estate dealer in Hyde Park said: "The Negro has purchased
90 per cent of the property where he lives, and 75 per cent of these are 'high-
class colored men.'" This estimate is too high, but it shows the impression
made by the large number of Negro home buyers.
An inquiry in two blocks on Prairie and Forest avenues disclosed that
40 per cent of the Negroes living on Prairie Avenue were property owners,
in the intervening block on Thirty-seventh Street over 90 per cent were owners,
while on Forest Avenue the Negro property owners were few.
In 1920 the School of Civics canvassed a small area occupied by Negroes in
the district west of State Street, a district where, because of their low economic
status, they would not be expected to buy. Of 331 families, thirty, or 10 per
cent, were owners, and all but one had been owners for from four to twenty
years, so that they had not been influenced by the migration.
Of the impression made by the home-buying migrants a very intelligent
Negro real estate dealer said, referring to the Chicago Negroes:
I will dare say that go per cent or even a greater number did not own their prop-
erty. They rented. It seems there has been a different spirit instilled into the
northern colored man. We bow to the southern man because he is a home owner.
The northern man was satisfied to rent. I was bom in Chicago and felt the same as
others do.
The present trend was mdicated in these statements of two well-informed
white real estate dealers on the South Side : "The colored people are demanding
homes and the tendency is to buy"; and that Negroes were continuing to
buy homes in the district between Thirty-ninth and Forty-seventh streets,
Cottage Grove Avenue and State Street, more sales being made to Negroes in
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 219
that particular location than in any other. And this has been during a period
of acute and general housing famine in every large city.
Methods 0} purchase. — When Negroes first began to buy dwellings during
the migration years, the average price was $4,000 to $5,000, and the
initial payment, usually $500, ranged from $300 to $1,000. The time for
payment was ordinarily three years, though some contracts were for five
years. Later on Negroes began to buy houses or apartment buildings running
as high as $8,000 or $10,000, and the payments were increased proportionately.
That the Negro assumed a heavy load, sometimes more than he could
reasonably be expected to carry, was the opinion of several careful observers.
While the surplus from his wages might be expected to cover the monthly
payments, money for taxes, repairs, and insurance would have to come from
the wages of wife or children, or from lodgers.
In April, 1920, when work at high wages was abundant, a well-informed
Negro real estate dealer said that any Negro family head could then assume
payments of from $40 to $55 a month on purchased property. But many
Negroes made contracts calling for monthly pajonents of $65 to $75.
The opinions of experienced persons in close touch with the situation were
divided as to whether, in making such purchases, Negroes had assumed too
heavy obligations. One said his long experience showed that Negroes carry
out what they undertake to do; that very few default on their payments, and
when Negroes buy on the instalment plan " they pay out better than the whites
do, as a rule."
Another said, though Negroes buy only old properties — and generally
pay more than white people — they are careful in assxuning their obligations
and make their pa3anents promptly. They pay down to the mortgage, in
from three to five years, and sometimes within two years.
Another, who has been dealing with Negroes smce 1907, gave his opinion
that they undertake their obligations seriously, and as instalment buyers of
property they are entirely satisfactory.
Still another South Side man who sells real estate to Negroes declared that
he had been getting better payments recently than he did three or four years
ago; in 1914, 1915, and 1916 he suffered considerable loss because of defaults
in pa3anents on purchases or in rents.
A former president of the Chicago Real Estate Board remarked that
Negroes buy but do not build their houses, and are not yet sufficiently numer-
ous to create a market for real estate; that white people will not buy back
property once occupied by Negroes; that, as the mmibers of Negroes increase,
this situation might be changed, but that the Negro who tries to sell old prop-
erty, on which he has put no improvements, wUi rarely find a buyer, because
there is so much old property available.
Certain banks and loan firms thought there would be a general foreclosure
of mortgages on recently purchased property as they fell due, that the Negroes
220 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
are carrying such heavy payments on their contracts that they cannot reduce
their mortgages and consequently renewals will be denied; that the Negro has
not yet acquired sufficient stability to carry on payments over a long term of
years, and if wage reductions become general they wiU fall most heavily on
unskilled workers and render difficult the meeting of payments by such Negroes,
who constitute the great majority.
Most of the firms that had dealings with Negroes, whether as buyers,
borrowers, or renters, expressed satisfaction with their transactions with them.
Typical of their comments was that of John A. Schmidt, who found Negroes
to be prompter than Jews in making payments, and of Milton Yondorf, who
said that Negroes, like the Italians, finish paying for one house before under-
taking to buy another, and are eager to make the final payment.
While the preponderance of opinion was that the Negroes do meet their
payments, it may be that experience is stiU too limited in Chicago and condi-
tions have thus far been too abnormal to afford the basis for final judgment and
future policy.
The first wave of buying by Negroes was stimulated by both Negro and
white real estate agents because many dwellings had been unremunerative for
several years. With the tightening up of the real estate market that ensued,
Negroes became home hunters, and they are continuing to search.
There has been a wide variation in the prices paid by Negroes for dwellings.
For some houses Negroes have undoubtedly paid more than could have been
obtained from a white purchaser. One dealer's opinion was that the Negroes
have paid full value. Another said that the Negro never pays higher for
property unless the price is measured by what has been paid for it by white
persons of the "fourth class" — ^referring to property that has descended from
the original owner through three classes of whites before coming into Negro
hands. Many purchases during the last two or three years have been made
direct from the owners. An attempt made by white real estate men to come
to an agreement regarding sales in new districts — whereby they would turn
over to Negro agents all inquiries as to blocks where Negroes already lived, and
Negro agents would not place Negroes in exclusively white districts — ^was
imsuccessful.
in. REAL ESTATE LOANS TO NEGROES
The most formidable stumbling-block in the way of home owning by
Negroes is the unsalability of their mortgages. Except in a limited field these
loans have no market. The Negro demand for home property has become
so large in recent years that the search for it has extended beyond the fringes
of the main existing districts on the South, West, and North sides into the out-
lying territory adjoining Negro settlements in Blue Island, Woodlawn, Morgan
Park, and Robbms. How the Negro is to be financed in his effort to improve
his citizenship and home Ufe through home ownership thus becomes a matter
of great concern.
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 221
The Commission sought to leam from banks, trust companies, brokerage
firms, and similar institutions their experience with Negro clients and property
and their purpose and plans as to future dealings. To thirty such institutions
questionnaires were sent, and twenty-three gave careful replies.
Only a few real estate fijms that have a large number of Negro clients
have funds available for such loans. These meet but a small part of the de-
mand. The three banks that have large Negro deposits, the Lincoln State, the
Franklin State, and Jesse Binga's, make such loans when deemed desirable, but
they seem not a large factor in relieving the loan situation. Many of the
banks that are depositories for Negroes' funds do not make loans to them,
giving as theur reason that they do not lend on the class of property purchased
by Negroes. Some of them have no real estate department. Only three
of the downtown investment bankers make no restrictions regarding Negro
borrowers that are not common to all; they have dealt with Negro clients for
many years and have found them entirely satisfactory. Possibly one reason
for this is that they educate their buyers of mortgages concerning the value of
these loans; and thus have succeeded, they say, in overcoming many objec-
tions based upon race prejudice.
Most large real estate firms and loan companies decline to make loans on
property owned or occupied by Negroes. With some of them this is a blanket
provision that covers generally property in changing or depreciated districts.
Difficulty of disposing of such mortgages is one of the commonest reasons
given for refusing to handle them.
Even among the agencies that handle such loans opinion is not unanimous
on fundamental points involved. The Commission asked several brokers
representing large interests this question: "Does your experience indicate
that loans up to 50 per cent of the valuation on property in the residence
districts from Twenty-sixth to Sixtieth streets and from State Street to the lake
have a saf e-and-sound investment value ? ' ' Among those favorable to Negroes
the answer of Yondorf & Company, a downtown firm, is perhaps typical:
It is necessary to consider each house separately, as conditions vary widely;
consideration must be given to future uses of the property, the present condi-
tion of the improvements, and especially the stability of the person asking for
the loan. As a general rule, loans on old residence property are not as good
as those on houses in new districts; on an old house about $1,000 would be
loaned on a market value of $5,000, whereas in new districts the contractor can
borrow up to two- thirds of the cost of the house; no conscious discrimination
is made in the nature of higher rates because a borrower happens to be a Negro;
careful consideration is given to the margin of safety, and safeguards are
arranged in the way provided for payments.
Lionel Bell, another downtown loan broker, regarded this general type of
mortgages on old residence property as fully secured, and does not hesitate to
recommend mortgages in the district mentioned.
222 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
John A. Schmidt, who handles a large number of loans on Negro property
in that district, considers them of high value, though the risks are both physical
and moral; it is essential to know both the client and the property; the amount
of the loan asked on Negro property usually is not high as compared with its
value. No distinction is made as to the color of the borrower, the condition
and value of the property being the only basis for the loan; loans to Negroes
are less in amount than to whites, though clients thus far accepted are com-
monly found satisfactory; the period of payment is about the same, var3dng
between three and five years, according to the amount paid monthly, the kind
of property involved, and so on. The usual range of amounts requested was
one-third to one-half of the value of the property.
R. M. O'Brien & Company, an active South Side real estate firm which
also deals largely ia Negro mortgages, found that the average amount loaned
to Negroes was smaller, and that it is a smaller percentage of the value of the
property than in the case of loans to whites, and that the average period for
loans to Negroes was three years.
Mead & Coe, another real estate firm, foimd that the Negroes usually are
allowed $i,ooo to the white man's $1,500; that only 35 per cent of the value
of the property is loaned to the Negro, whereas 50 per cent is granted to whites.
Maximum time of loan was five years for the white and three years for the Negro.
The Chicago Trust Company answered that the same requirements were
made of white and Negro; the range was from $2,000 to $6,000, Umited to 50
per cent of conservative valuation, and five years.
In general it was foimd that property values in the districts where Negroes
usually buy are affected by more factors than is the property in districts where
whites usually buy. Where Negroes are buying the majority of white people
are renting.
It was sought to find out whether Negroes ask for renewals more often than
do white borrowers; whether there was any marked difference between Negroes
and other racial groups in the promptness of making payments, in asking for
additional time, in the difficulty of collections, and in compelling foreclosure.
Comparison of Negroes and whites was found to be difficult because of differ-
ences between various nationalities as to repaying loans. The Poles pay
promptly when dealing through loan companies or banks conducted by
Poles. The Italians are eager to get their property cleared. Jews are likely
to ask for renewals and to expect the property to pay the mortgage out of
eammgs. The Negroes pay if they can, but sometimes have difficulty because
they have arranged heavy pa3nnents on their contracts; during the period of
high wages there has been little trouble, but the feeling was that as yet there
had been no real test. Speaking generally, a representative of Yondorf &
Company said it was estimated that only about 25 per cent of working people
are thrifty and save anything; 75 per cent save nothing; and that proportion
holds true of the Negroes.
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 223
Firms that deal with Negroes ask for no larger reduction when a Negro
renews his loan, they say, than when a white person renews if the character of
the property is the same. The facts as to the reliability, character, and stand-
ing of the borrower are established when the loan is first made. Negroes buy
old properties where deterioration is rapid, and when the renewal is asked the
value of the property has fallen in proportion. White persons do not buy the
same class of property. So it is necessary to ask the Negro to reduce his
mortgage considerably, except when his property is in a location of newer
houses, such as Morgan Park or Woodlawn.
Difficulty is experienced by mortgage bankers and brokers in selling Negro
mortgages to white cUents. Yondorf & Company declared that whUe their
old clients would buy regardless of the color of the borrower, others had to be
convinced of the value of the property and of the earning power and stability
of the Negro borrower. The Negro mortgages are usually for smaller amounts
and hence within the reach of small iavestors. When white investors find
that Negroes' loans are promptly paid they continue to buy such securities.
Lionel Bell reported some difficulty in selling Negro mortgages to white
clients, though he generally succeeded, by showing their value and by inspec-
tion, that the Negroes were keeping their houses in good condition as to both
sanitation and repair.
E. A. Cummings & Company have difficulty in selling such mortgages
because many of their clients are out-of-town buyers who are suspicious of
Negro property.
E. and S. Lowenstein find no market for such loans; non-resident buyers
and even local buyers fight shy of Negro property in particular, and property
in general that is undesirable because of overcrowding and consequent hard usage
In general, the refusals to buy Negro loans are due to feeling against the
Negro, a disbelief in the Negro's ability to pay them, and distrust of the old
properties which Negroes commonly buy. The opinion was general that any-
thing which would tend to stabilize values on the South Side, especially in
the lower part of the district occupied by Negroes, would be desirable; that
improvements such as the widening of South Park Avenue would aid materially.
Real estate men who have Negroes for clients are finding it advantageous
to educate them in the meaning of mortgages, ia the method of issuing and
renewing them, and in what is expected of the mortgagor and what the mort-
gagor may expect. When the Negro is carefully informed of the processes
iuvolved in financing the purchase of a home, and the terms are thoroughly
understood, there is much less likelihood of losing his property. Friendly
real estate men are constantly helping Negroes to carry their mortgages and to
find means of renewing when that contingency arises. It is helpful also to
remind Negroes of the necessity of paying their taxes and meeting other obliga-
tions promptly, and of keeping their property in good condition. Some firms
stated that the "natural honesty of the Negro and his love of home life" have
224 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
been fostered by thoughtful friends and leaders, as well as by those who have
busmess transactions with him. This pays dividends in better citizenship.
Widening the market for Negro loans. — The white people need to know the
obstacles in the path of the Negro who wishes to establish a good home for
his family and thus improve his citizenship and serve as a good example to
others of his race. How to finance Negro home buyers is a large difficulty in
solving the Negro housing problem. The Commission held a conference
devoted almost entirely to this topic, at which various experts and authorities
were consulted. It was sought to ascertain the fundamentals for meeting the
needs of the future, assuming that the Negro population in Chicago is likely
to continue in normal growth, and that the demand for adequate housing for
the Negro population is not likely to lessen for several years. Particular
attention was given to the question of how a market might be created for the
Negro's loans.
An appraiser for the Fort Dearborn National Bank suggested that a system
involving partial payments represented by $25 bonds paying semiannual
interest might be helpful. Bonds of such low denominations might, he thought,
be purchased by Negroes. By such a system Negroes would leam to invest
their money wisely, and by putting money into substantial securities would
encourage real estate investments. These securities could be sold by Negro
bankers and real estate brokers. But he expressed confidence that not a few
white people would buy bonds of that character. They would be based on
about 60 per cent of the value of the property.
One real estate broker averred that success in financing Negro home buyers
would be contingent upon creating definite districts in any portion of the city
where the colored men may find it necessary to live in order to be able to reach
their business or their place of employment, districts to be known as their
exclusive territory. Then it would be possible to go to a mortgage loan house
and present a definite case when a mortgage falls due. Knowing that the
property was that of a Negro, and knowing the district, one would have a
definite basis for estimating future increase or depredation of value. It was
his opinion that white people would support a market of that nature, because
it would not only protect the colored man and the white man alike but all of
the property interests of the city. He disclaimed any desire to promote
segregation. But he maintained that so long as the races mixed, clashes were
inevitable, and that the problem of selling Negro loans, erecting houses, and
renewing mortgages would solve itself under this plan, "because white men
will be very glad to come to the assistance of colored."
It happens, however, that some subdivisions developed "especially for
Negroes" present low standards as well as exploitation. One such sub-
division is called Lilydale. An investigator reported on it as follows:
Lilydale is on a flat prairie and was laid out as a subdivision for Negro residents
near the comer of Ninety-fifth and State streets several years ago. It is about five
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 225
blocks square. The developer is a prominent white real estate dealer active in sub-
division property generally. Another well-known real estate man, who is also a
prominent local politician, is interested in establishing a Negro colony on this property.
The latter is agent for a great deal of property on the South Side tenanted by Negroes.
Many Negroes purchased lots in LUydale at fairly high prices, considering that
virtually no improvements had been made to the property. Water has since been
laid in some of the streets and some of them are supplied with sewers, but there is
no paving and no lighting. Sidewalks are few, mud holes many. Yards, streets,
and alleys are unkempt.
Those who promoted the subdivision set up the shells of a few houses, mainly of
the bungalow type. Most of these were sold and the inside finish was supplied by
the purchasers. Most of these sale houses, though, remain unfinished. The building
of houses in Lilydale has been half-hearted, and most of the structures are so poorly
constructed that they are conspicuously uncomfortable. Some of these were built by
piecemeal with any kind of waste building material that could be gathered. The
people in this isolated community apparently are making the best of a hopeless situa-
tion. They express a desire to recover the money they have invested. Provisions
are obtained from two or three small stores. There is a church in the vicinity, but
at the time of the investigation no services were being held in it. The children attend
a branch of the Bumside School, which is conveniently located. The teacher is a
Negro woman, a graduate of a southern normal school. She reported that there is
apparently no prejudice between the white and Negro children; that their only differ-
ences are those to which all children fall heir. She regards the Negro colony of Lily-
dale as a bad mistake and would discourage other Negroes from making purchases
there. She regards the investment there as of doubtful value.
There is a car line on Ninety-fifth Street which connects with the industries of
South Chicago, where a number of the men of Lilydale are employed.
Adding to the loneliness of the general aspect is the fact that most of the surround-
ing area is stiU what is termed "acreage."
Pertinent also is the statement of a man who for years has been interested
in the housing difficulties of Negroes.
Some people have suggested taking a vacant piece of property and building it up
for colored occupancy, but there is the biggest hubbub raised when any such attempt
is made. People complain: "You wUl ruin this whole neighborhood! You will ruin
the street car line! Everything out in that neighborhood wiU be ruined all along the
street, because if you bmld up a colored neighborhood in any one particular location
nobody else wiU want to go out that way." So that I have come to the point where
I say there is no solution. I can't do anything. I'd have been willing to put in a
million doUars in property anywhere where there would have been a chance to get
S per cent return on my money. There isn't any use in doing a thing that isn't eco-
nomically sound. I wanted to bring this up to show that I had given it some thought,
and that I am very desirous of having somebody make a suggestion that is feasible
so that something can be done.
The difficulty of disposing of loans in a district inhabited by Negroes was
touched upon by a loan expert from the Chicago Trust Company, which handles
226 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
such loans. The trouble, he thought, centers on the character of the
property and of the district, rather than on the fact that the property happened
to be owned or occupied by Negroes. He said that even Negro investors
object to property in such a district for the reason that it is old, little in demand,
and generally a poor risk. He suggested the possibility of small mortgage
bond issues with separate notes. This would save the expense of printing the
bonds, which is considerable at present prices, and the investor would be
afforded the same security. He also suggested having "baby" bonds printed
in standard form, so that they could be simply filled in, thus saving expense.
Another real estate broker who had dealt in mortgages of South Side
Negroes for a number of years declared that the average mortgage buyer seems
to prefer those on new bungalows where the margin of security is less' than
that on property in the Negro district. Since the bungalow's cost of construc-
tion was less, the chance of revenue under adverse circumstances would be
less. He maintained that a ten- or twelve-room apartment house in the
Second Ward (South Side) affords a better margin of security than the ordinary
cheap bungalow, and that it was therefore a question of educating mortgage
buyers on the question of security. The best evidence on this, he maintained,
would be the number of foreclosures. He had never had to foreclose with
Negroes in the fifteen years of his experience. In that time only two contracts
had been forfeited, both because of disputes between the heirs and the buyers.
His firm had, however, made new contracts when illness or other adverse
circumstances had halted payments, thus allowing the buyers to start over
again. Means had also been taken to see that buyers paid their taxes, in
which process they had required education. White people must be depended
upon to buy the Negro's loans. Very few Negroes buy loans. Their tendency,
he said, is to invest in a home earUer in their career than the white people, and
they buy as soon as they have accumulated enough to make the initial
payment.
According to a bank appraiser's opinion Negroes do not understand values,
and they are often led to purchase a building at much more than its worth.
In consequence the amount of loans they need is much greater than it ought
to be. He had not found, however, that the Negroes allow their property to
deteriorate unduly. A different situation had been found where white people
lease to Negroes.
According to some real estate dealers, there are cases where houses are
allowed to deteriorate, where the payment has been larger than the purchaser
could carry conveniently. But "after he has taken care of the payment and
has his deed, he will give attention to the improvement of the house." Others
agreed that the Negro mortgage debtor is quite as reliable as a white debtor
of the same class.
The president of the Cook County Real Estate Board suggested that one
means of creating a market for Negro loans would be the passage of the "Home
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 227
Loan Bank Bill." Its provisions are that no loan would be made in excess of
$S,ooo, but loans would be made up to 80 per cent of the fair value of the
property. Many of the loan houses, he declared, do not consider small loans,
a fact confirmed by the Commission. He cited one house that will not consider
a loan of less than $500,000. For this reason he suggested that this business
should be handled by the building and loan associations, since they do business
on a smaller margin of operating cost and he regarded them as the proper
media for finding suitable markets for Negro mortgages.
Involved in the plan for funding the Negro's loans was the question of
segregation. It has been maintained that not much financing could be expected
from white people unless boundaries were allotted to the Negroes, so that
investors in loans would know definitely what to expect. Opinions, of course,
differed on segregation. It was admitted that a spreading out of the Negro
population in Chicago is to be expected, that Negroes can hardly be expected
to remain in the districts in which they have hitherto virtually segregated
themselves. But the opinion was also given that their tendency is to remain
among and near their own people.
IV. FINANCIAL RESOURCES OF NEGROES
The chief concern of investors, brokers, and real estate dealers is as to the
ability of Negroes to meet obUgations. There is a common beUef, not shaken
even by the satisfactory experiences of those who have dealt with them, that
Negroes have no financial resources, and are thriftless and improvident. Inas-
much as a large part of the present housing difficulty hinges upon this point,
the Commission made inquiries as to the thrift of Negroes. A group of large
banks in the "Loop" and in neighborhoods of Negro residents were asked to
give their experiences with Negroes as depositors and investors. In spite of
contrary opinion it appears that the resources of Negroes in Chicago are
astonishingly large. In the summer of 1920 in one of the South Side banks
operated by white men Negroes had deposits of $750,000. One banker told of a
Negro banker who sold among the Negroes a bond issue of $150,000 on an old
building on Wabash Avenue, paying solicitors 10 per cent commission to make
sales. The savings deposits in his bank recently had grown very materially.
It was his experience that only a few Negroes buy bonds. They only inquire
casually about them.
The sales manager for bonds at a large savings bank, however, told of the
sale of $3,000 worth of bonds to a Negro woman who paid for them from" a roll
of bills of $ro to $50. Another "downtown" broker told of a Negro porter
in a "Loop" hotel, who recently loaned $6,000 through his firm.
The information as to Negro deposits, sought by the Commission, was
provided by seven trust and savings banks, three state banks, two national
banks, and one trust company. These were able to isolate and check up their
Negro deposits. One of the banks had $1,500,000 on deposit for Negroes;
228 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
another $1,000,000. Still another had 4,000 Negro depositors. A state bank
had $650,000 on deposit for Negroes, another $150,000 and one of the national
banks had $47,000.
The average deposits of the Negroes are not so large as those of all the
depositors. The comparison, however, reveals a fair porportion when it is
considered that there are many very large individual depositors and business
houses among the whites. This is how the amounts run, by institutions:
Average Individual Savings Balance Aveiage Individual Balance
(White'and Negro Combined) (Negroes Only)
$125.00 $ 50.00
108.88 66.76
545- 00 332.00
400.00 200.00
120.00 60.00
235.00 100.00
125.00 10.00
196.00 105.00
186.82 300.00
230.00 186.00
It was the almost unanimous report that Negroes are more likely to with-
draw their accounts than are white people, that their accounts are less perma-
nent. In two instances only was the opinion expressed that they were about
the same with both races.
Accompanying the questionnaire to banks was a list of questions concerning
real estate loans. One of these was: "Does your bank make loans to Negroes
on real estate, collateral, commercial paper, or personal notes ?" AU except one
of the trust and savings banks replied in the affirmative. One of the state
banks buys commercial paper on proper security, but not real estate loans
because of the difficulty in selUng them. One of the national banks buys
commercial or collateral paper on its merits, without regard to color. Indeed,
it appears that no color line is drawn in this line of business except by the
few institutions that decline aU loans to Negroes.
In general it was found that the Negroes are showing strong tendencies to
open bank accounts, that they are steadily improving in the amoimt of deposits
made, in the steadiness of their accounts, and in thrift in general. However,
it appears that in only a few of the banks are they welcomed and in most of
them they are only tolerated. In banks located in neighborhoods in which
Negroes live there is an amazing number of Negro depositors, who receive,
as a rule, friendly advice and help in their financial transactions. Thus
Negroes are taught banking formalities, while thrift is encouraged, and a
good spirit is developed among the white employees toward Negro depositors.
In some instances, however, Negroes, like their white brothers, show suspicion
of banking institutions when they have suffered losses.
THE NEGRO HOUSING PROBLEM 229
It appears also that, in addition to the growing desire to invest in homes
of their own, Negroes are showing a strong tendency to engage in business
ventures. They are developing insurance companies, co-operative stores,
retail stores of various kinds, and kindred enterprises.
Negroes' lack of opportunities for banking experience. — In order to carry
forward successfully their business undertakings Negroes need practical
personal experience and training in banking and financial methods. Yet there
is a strong tendency to bar Negroes from emplo3mient in banks, except as
porters or in some unskilled capacity, and they are thus denied the experience
needed in solving financial problems among their own race.
Bankers were asked: "If Negroes competent to learn practical banking
were available, could you employ them?" Here are some of the condensed
replies:
1. Other employees would refuse to co-operate with them and associate with
them.
2. They are not reliable as a rule.
3. Do not think so.
4. Yes.
5- No.
6. We have no objections beyond the fact that 93 per cent of our depositors are
white; consequently we would not care to employ colored tellers or clerks in handling
their business.
7. We could not have them in clerical positions.
8. In a general way we feel that the employment of Negroes by banking institu-
tions would cause trouble with certain classes of our depositors.
9. Very difficult to work white and colored in same office or cages. White
customers prefer to have white clerks wait upon them.
10. Clerks who were antagonistic to Negroes would bring about constant diffi-
culties through the misplacing of papers, mistakes, etc., which would seem to be the
fault of the Negroes.
11. Have found that a Negro wUl appear to be strictly honest for a period of
years and then turn aroxmd and prove not to be.
12. Our section of the city is entirely white, but with a fear of colored invasion.
There is, therefore, a strong prejudice against them. We have only about half a
dozen accounts with colored people. Two of these are in the savings department
and are maintained with large balances. These two customers are thrifty and care-
fvil with their money. The others are not.
13. In former years a bank position was eagerly sought and considered excep-
tionally good. At present, because of higher salaries which can be offered by concerns
which make greater earnings than banks and can therefore pay more, the banks are
not getting the same high grade of employees. With the former class it would have
been possible to appeal to their sense of duty to help educate the Negroes and to
overcome prejudice. With present conditions it is not likely that this appeal would
have the same effect, and prejudice against Negroes would make trouble in our routine.
14. Social factors enter. For instance, banks often have dinners or other events
for or among their employees. No "Loop" hotel would put on an affair for whites
230 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
and Negroes. There is also the difl&culty of washrooms, and lockers, etc., where
prejudiced employees could make a great deal of trouble.
It would seem, then, that there is not much chance for the hundreds of
intelligent Negro high-school and college graduates in Chicago to obtain a
practical education in banking methods through direct experience. Banks
owned by Negroes are few and smaU, and there is scarcely any opportunity to
obtain similar experience in Negro building and loan, insurance, and other
companies, which are also limited in number.
CHAPTER VI
RACIAL CONTACTS
INTRODUCTION
Contacts of whites and Negroes in the North and South differ according
to the institutions and traditions of the sections in which they have been reared.
In the South relations are fixed and generally understood, although Negroes
consider the institutions on which these relations are based oppressive and
consistently oppose them. There the "color line" is drawn rigidly without
reference to the desires or comfort of Negroes or the free expression of their
citizenship privileges. Because it is nearer than the North to the institution
of slavery, the South still maintains an almost patriarchal relationship with
its Negro population. Small communities, the plantation system, and the
great numbers of Negroes in domestic service hold the two races steadily in
contacts so close that class as well as race lines are maintained with deliberate-
ness and persistence. Even where there are no laws specifically regulating
association of the races, the sentiment of the community is enforced, frequently
in disregard of existing general laws. Thus Negroes may not eat in a restaurant
with whites, sit ia adjoining seats in a theater, Uve in the same neighborhoods,
work together on the same jobs, or attend the same schools.
In northern communities the institutions are more liberal and with few
exceptions there are no restrictive laws applying specifically to racial associa-
tion. In fact, the trend of legislation and of court decisions is strongly toward
adopting and enforcing general regulations without regard to race or color.
Relations are less personal, contacts are wider and more frequent.
From a very simple organization of relations in the South, Negroes are
transported to more complex relations based on more elaborate urban distribu-
tion of responsibilities. Thus it happens that whites and Negroes in Chicago
may be found working together in industry, riding together on street cars,
attending the same schools, sharing political activities, with an increasing
number of Negroes holding public office, transacting business in banks, stores,
and real estate, competing in athletics in public schools, colleges, and the
Y.M.C.A., and conferring on social problems in civic and reform clubs.
The increasing number of these contacts cannot fail to influence the neces-
sary adjustments. The general public seems to accept necessary contacts
with a minimum of outward friction, as is shown by thousands of daily contacts.
Each contact, however, where there is friction, is a focus of comment, antago-
nism, resentment, prejudice, or fear. But association in such places as hotels,
restaurants, barber shops, dance halls, and theaters is often limited by tradition
and custom in the North as strictly as by regulation in the South.
231
232 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
A. LEGAL STATUS OF NEGROES IN ILLINOIS
The legal status of Negroes in Illinois differs in no respect from that of
white persons. The limitations which affect Negroes are established through
rules imposed by persons who offer public services and accommodations.
When these rules are unfair, evasive, or even illegal, they can be enforced only
because of non-enforcement of existing laws. Federal and state courts are
in accord in holding Negro men and women in Illinois to be citizens of the
United States and of the commonwealth, protected by the laws against dis-
crimination or oppression on account of their race or color.
There are two lines of decisions in Illinois relating to discriminations on
account of color. One line of cases prohibits discrimination in certain public
places and the other prohibits discrimination against school children. All but
two of these cases were tried since the passage of the School Act and the Civil
Rights Act, prohibiting such discrimination, enacted in 1874 and 1885, respec-
tively. The civil-rights cases' are briefly reviewed below by a consideration
of the school cases.
I. CIVIL MGHTS m PUBLIC PLACES
The Civil Rights Act, originally passed in 1885, was amended in 1903,
and again in 1911. Section i of this act now provides:
That all persons within the jurisdiction of said State of Illinois shall be entitled
to the fuH and equal enjoyment of the accommodation, advantages, facilities and
privileges of inns, restaurants, eating houses, hotels, soda-fountains, saloons, barber
shops, bathrooms, theaters, skating rinks, concerts, cafes, bicycle rinks, elevators,
ice-cream parlors or rooms, railroads, omnibuses, stages, street cars, boats, funeral
hearses, and public conveyances on land and water, and all other places of public
accommodation and amusement, subject only to the conditions and limitations
established by law and applicable alike to all citizens; nor shall there be any dis-
crimination on account of race or color in the price to be charged and paid for lots
or graves in any cemetery or place for burying the dead, but the price to be charged
and paid for lots in any cemetery or place for burying the dead shall be applicable
alike to aU citizens of every race and color.
Section 2 provides:
That any person who shall violate any of the provisions of the foregoing section
by denying to any citizen, except for reasons applicable alike to all citizens of every
race and color and regardless of color or race, the full enjoyment of any accommoda-
tions, advantages, facilities or privileges in said section enumerated or by aiding or
inciting such denial, shall for every such offense forfeit and pay a sum not less than
$25 nor more than $500 to the person aggrieved thereby, to be recovered in any court
'Civil-rights cases are: Williams v. Chicago 6* Northwestern Railroad Co., 55 111. 185;
Baylies v. Curry, 128 lU. 287; Cecil v. Green, 161 III. 265; People v. Forest Home Cemetery
Co., 258 111. 36; Grace v. Moseley, H2 111. App. 100; Dean v. Chicago &• N.W. R.R. Co., 183
111. App. 317; Thorne v. Alcazar Amusement Co., 210 111. App. 173; White v. Pasfidd, 212
m. App. 73-
RACIAL CONTACTS 233
of competent jurisdiction in the county where said offense was committed, and shall
also for every such offense be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction
thereof, shall be fined not to exceed $500 or shall be imprisoned not more than one
year or both; and provided further, that a judgment in favor of the party aggrieved,
or punishment upon an indictment, shall be a bar to either prosecution respectively.
Anna William v. Chicago &° Northwestern Railway Company (55 111. 185) —
the first case of color discrimination which reached the supreme court of
Illinois — ^was heard in 1870, before the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The
court decided that a railroad company could not exclude a Negro woman on
account of her color from a certain car reserved for the use of ladies. The
evidence showed that the brakeman had refused to permit the Negro woman
to enter the "ladies' car" and pushed her away. The jury awarded her
$200 damages, which the court upheld as reasonable.
Before the Amendment of 1903, the Civil Rights Act of 1885 provided
that all persons should be entitled
to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodation, advantages, facilities and
privileges of inns, restaurants, eating houses, barber shops, public conveyances on
land or water, theaters, and all other places of public accommodation and amusement,
subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law and appUcable
alike to all citizens.
In 1896, in Cecil v. Green (60 111. App., 61 ; afl&rmed, 161 lU. 265), the court
decided that the expression "all other places of public accommodation"
embraced only places of the same general character as those enimierated,
and therefore that soda fountains were not included within the general term.
The amendment of 1903 included soda fountains, saloons, bathrooms,
skating rinks, concerts, bicycle rinks, elevators, and ice-cream parlors.
In Baylies v. Curry (30 111. App. 105; afi&rmed, 128 lU. 36), decided in
1889, a Negro woman, after being refused tickets at the box-office of Curry's
Theater, had a white woman purchase two tickets for her in the balcony.
Upon attempting to use them, the Negro woman and her husband were referred
back to the box-office and their money returned. The proprietor introduced
evidence to show that his theater was Ln a bad neighborhood, and he had,
therefore, adopted the rule of reserving certain rows for Negroes in each
section of the house. The supreme court, in affirming judgment for $100
damages, said: "Beyond all question, the Civil Rights Act prohibits the
denial of access to the theater and to the several circles or grades of seats
therein, because of race or color."
In 1903, in Grace v. Moseley (112 lU. App. 100), it was held that the statute
imposes liability only where the defendant denies or incites a denial of service,
not where he merely fails to provide service.
The amendment of 191 1 provided that there should not be any discrimina-
tion on account of race or color in the price charged for lots or graves in any
cemetery.
234 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Relying upon this provision, Gaskill, a Negro, applied for a writ of
mandq,mus to compel the Forest Home Cemetery Company to receive the
body of his wife for burial {People ex rel. Gaskill v. Forest Home Cemetery
Company, 258 111. 36, 1913). The cemetery company had passed a resolution
in 1907 that thereafter the cemetery would be maintained for the burial of
white persons only — except that colored persons owning lots in the cemetery,
and their direct heirs, should be admitted for burial. Gaskill did not own
a lot in the cemetery, but four of his children had been buried there fifteen to
twenty years before in single graves separated from each other; and when he
applied in 191 2 for space for the burial of his wife, the company refused per-
mission solely on account of her color.
The court held that the 1911 amendment did not prohibit a cemetery
corporation, which did not have the power of eminent domain under its charter
and which had no monopoly of the burial places in its vicinity, from making
and enforcing a rule excluding colored persons from burial in its cemetery.
The case was taken on writ of error to the Supreme Court of the United States
(238 U.S. 606), but the writ was dismissed for want of jurisdiction without
further comment.
In Dean v. Chicago &• Northwestern Railway Company (183 111. App. 317;
1913), Dean, a Negro, recovered damages of $300 from the railway company
for its refusal to allow him to ride in a station elevator because of his color.'
n. DISCRIMINATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The first school case was decided in 1874, before there was any statute
forbidding discrimination against Negro children in the public schools.' In
Chase v. Stephenson (71 lU. 383; 1874) a taxpayer filed a biU to enjoin the
directors of a school district from maintaining a separate school for Negro
children; and the court held that the directors had no authority to discriminate
on accoimt of color, and the separate school was enjoined.
^ White V. Pas fidd, 212 111. App. 73; 1918. A Negro filed a biU in equity to enjoin the
lessees of a public pavilion and swimming-pool from excluding him therefrom. It was held
that a court of equity had no jurisdiction to enjoin such a violation of the Civil Rights Act,
but left the party to his statutory remedies of either an action for damages or criminal prose-
cution.
Thorne v. Alcazar Amusement Company, 210 111. App. 173, 1918, was an action to recover
the penalty provided by the Civil Rights Act for refusing to permit a Negro woman to occupy
a theater seat for which she had purchased a ticket. Judgment in favor of the plaintiff in
the municipal court was reversed in the appellate court on the ground that the municipal
court had no jurisdiction to impose penalties for criminal acts occurring outside the city
limits.
" School cases in Illinois are as follows: Chase v. Stephenson, 7 r 111. 383; People v. Board
of Education of Quincy, loi 111. 308; People v. McFall and Board of Education ofQuincy,
26 III. App. 319, affirmed, 124 lU. 642; People v. Board of Education of Upper Alton School
District, I2'! m. 613; Bibb v. Mayor of Alton, i7gl\l. 615; 193 111. 309; 209 111. 461; 221 HI.
27s; 233 111- S42.
RACIAL CONTACTS 235
In March, 1874, "An Act to Protect Colored Children in Their Rights to
Attend Public Schools" was passed which provided:
That all directors of schools, boards of education, or other school officers, whose
duty it now is or may be hereafter to provide in their respective jurisdictions schools
for the education of all children between the ages of six and twenty-one years, are
prohibited from excluding directly or indirectly any such child from such school on
account of the color of such child.
Two school cases have since arisen at Quincy, Illinois. The first, decided
in 1882 {People ex rel. Longress v. Board of Edtication of Quincy, loi 111. 308),
was a quo warranto proceeding, attacking a regulation of the school board,
requiring all Negro children to attend one school, and excluding them from all
others. The court held that the laws of Illinois prohibited such discrimination
and the board was without authority to make the regulation.
In the second Quincy case, decided in 1888 {People v. McFall and Board
of Education of Quincy 26 111. App. 319; affirmed, 124 111. 642), the petition for
quo warranto charged that the Board of Education had continued the illegal
discrimination against Negro children ever since the decision in the first case.
The petition was supported by a number of affidavits of Negroes. After a
full hearing on affidavits and counter-affidavits the trial court denied the
petition. The appellate court affirmed the judgment, characterizing the
affidavits in support of the petition as "vague and unsatisfactory"; and the
supreme court affirmed the judgment.
Quincy has fourteen schools, and the School Board has divided the city into
four school districts. The Lincoln School is exclusively a Negro school and is
the only school in the district in which most of the Negroes live. All white
children in that district are transferred to other schools, and the few Negro
children outside the Lincoln district are urged to attend the Lincoln School.
The Negro teachers and Negro principal of the Lincoln School are paid
higher salaries than other teachers in Quincy, and are told that if they
wish to maintain themselves in the Quincy schools, they must persuade Negro
children in other districts to attend the Lincoln School. In this way the board
has succeeded in confining Negro children with few exceptions to the Lincoln
School. Yet some Negroes are attending five other schools, including the
high school.
There have also been two school cases from Alton, lUinois. The first
case was People v. Board of Education of Upper Alton (127 lU. 613), decided
in 1889. This was a proceeding by mandamus, begun in the supreme court
by John Peair, to compel the Board of Education to admit his two children to
the high school of Upper Alton. Certain issues of fact were certified to the
circuit court for trial by jury. The jury returned a general verdict in favor
of the Board of Education, notwithstanding the foUowiug special findings
in answer to questions asked by the relator, John Peair:
236 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Q.: When application was made .... to the principal in charge of the said
building on behalf of relator's two children for permission to attend school in said
building, was such permission refused by said principal because said children were
colored ?
A.: Yes.
Q.: Have not the children of relator, John Peair, been excluded from attending
school in said high school building by the defendants on account of the color of said
children ?
A.: Yes.
The supreme court held that the general verdict in favor of the Board of
Education was "so manifestly the result of misdirection by the court as to be
entitled to no consideration," and a writ of mandamus was ordered.
The second school case from Alton, though begun in 1899, was not finally
decided until 1908. This was a petition for mandamus filed in the supreme
court by Scott Bibb to compel the mayor and city council of Alton to admit
his children to the Washington School which they had been attending, and from
which he alleged they were excluded on account of color and were transferred
to a school attended only by Negro children. The supreme court certified the
case to the circuit court of Madison County for the trial of certain issues of
facts. Before the supreme court finally ordered the mandamus to issue in
1908 the case had been tried by a jury seven times, had been before the supreme
court five times, and the Bibb children were grown up. It is interesting as a
flagrant example of race prejudice in the trial judge and jury.
In this case (People ex rel. Scott Bibb v. Mayor and Common Council of Alton,
233 lU. 542) the supreme court said:
The issues in this case have been tried seven times by juries in the circuit court,
and in two of them the jury disagreed. Upon the first trial where there was a verdict
it was in favor of the respondents, and it was certified to this court. That verdict
was set aside for manifest error prejudicial to the relator in rulings of the court in
the admission of evidence. (People ex rel. v. Mayor and Common Council of Alton,
1 79 111. 615.) There was another trial resulting in a verdict in favor of the respondents,
which was set aside on account of a misdirection of the court in submitting to the jury
a question of law. (People ex rel. v. Mayor and Common Council of Alton, 193 lU.
309.) Upon another trial there was a third verdict in favor of the respondents,
which this court set aside because clearly contrary to the facts proved and without
any support in the evidence. It was proved at that trial, beyond dispute or contro-
versy, that the respondents were guilty of the charge contained in the petition, and
the evidence introduced by them had no tendency to prove that the mtention clearly
manifested by their acts did not exist. The verdict could only be accounted for as
a product of passion, prejudice or hostihty to the law. (People ex rel. v. Mayor and
Common Council of Alton, 209 111. 461.) The attorney for relator then urged that a
peremptory writ should be awarded on the ground that the evidence m the record
clearly showed the relator to be entitled to it. The relator, however, had not requested
the circuit court to direct a verdict in his favor, and it was said that if such a motion
had been made the court would doubtless have granted it. The court said that the
RACIAL CONTACTS 237
issues were sent to the circuit court for trial in conformity with the practice governing
the trial of issues of fact in actions at law before a jury, and it was not deemed advis-
able, in the existing condition of the record, to set aside that order. The case was
sent back for another trial, and upon the next trial the attorney for relator moved
the court to direct a verdict in his favor, and this the court refused to do, assigning
as a reason that this court had directed that the issues be submitted to another jury.
The excuse was so shallow and baseless as to justify a conclusion that it was a mere
pretext to evade a compliance with the law as declared by this court, and the verdict
was set aside and the circuit court directed, in the trial of the questions of fact, to
proceed in accordance with the opinion then filed and the earlier opinions in the case.
{People ex rel. v. Mayor and Common Council of Alton, 221 111. 275.) The case has
been again tried, and a verdict in favor of the respondents, unsupported by any
evidence, has been returned to this court. The evidence was to all intents and
purposes the same as upon the former trials, and demonstrated, beyond the possibility
of a doubt, that the children of relator were excluded from the Washington School,
which was the most convenient of the pubUc schools of the city to which they had the
right to be admitted, and that the exclusion was solely on account of their race and
color, and for no other reason whatever. The evidence for the respondents that
nothing was said about schools or colored children by the mayor and council in
changing the ordinances for the purpose of excluding colored children from schools
attended by white children; that the intention to exclude them was not declared,
or that orders were never issued to the police, or that the mayor never intended the
poUce force under his control to do what they did and what he knew they were doing,
had no tendency whatever to prove that the children of the relator were not excluded
by the respondents on account of their race or color. At the conclusion of the evidence
the attorney for the relator moved the court to direct a verdict finding the issues in
favor of the relator and presented to the court a written instruction for that purpose,
but the court denied the motion and refused to give the instruction. In so doing the
court erred, and the error was in a matter of law, and contrary to the law in this case
as declared by this court in previous opinions filed in the case.
The attorney for respondents says that we ought to approve this verdict for the
reason that the questions of fact have been tried seven times in the circuit court;
that the juries have twice disagreed and five juries have decided in favor of the
respondents, and all the trials have been presided over by learned judges. Great
weight is justly given to the conclusion of a jury upon controverted questions of fact
where the verdict appears to be the result of an honest exercise of judgment and the
weighing, with fair deUberation, of the credibility of witnesses, but it is beyond
dispute that this verdict, when viewed in the most favorable hght for the respondents,
does not represent any conclusion of the jury from the evidence, and that all of the
verdicts represent nothing but a refusal by juries to enforce a law which they do not
personally approve or which is distasteful to them. In the first opinion filed in this
case it was said that it might be that the wisest of both races believe that the best
interests of each would be promoted by voluntary separation in the public schools,
but that it is no less the duty of courts to enforce the law as it stands, without respect
to race or persons. We would be remiss in our duty to enforce the law and would
forfeit the respect of all law-abiding citizens if we should approve this verdict for no
other reason than because it is one of a series which represent, not the enforcement
238 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
of law or the discharge of duty, but a deplorable disregard for the law and for the rights
of citizens. The verdicts have aU been more offensive and dangerous assaults upon
the law, the government, and organized societies, than utterances of individ-
uals or societies who are opposed to all law, and which are regarded only as the
sentiments of the ignorant, depraved and vicious who are the enemies of a gov-
ernment of laws. These verdicts were pronounced, not by those who were avowed
enemies of law and government, but by those who constituted a part of the gov-
ernmental machinery for the enforcement of the law and who had been sworn
to discharge their duty in that regard. Such verdicts not only denote opposition
to the enforcement of the law, but they also jeopardize the highest interests of
society and individuals. When the law, through the refusal of jurors to regard their
oaths, becomes impotent to protect the rights of the humblest, the rights of no person
are secure; and jurors may take heed that they obey and enforce the law, lest their
refusal to enforce the law for the protection of others becomes effective to deprive
them of their legal rights and substitute the beUefs of jurors and courts as to the
the wisdom of laws enacted for their protection. The error of the court in refusing
to direct a verdict is not obviated by the fact that there have been so many verdicts
contrary to the law and the evidence. The verdict must be set aside, and the next
question is whether the issues shall be again sent to the circmt court for trial.
In this case the effort to obtain a fair trial of the issues of fact before a jury has
proved utterly futile, and upon the trial now under review the court refused to direct
a verdict in passing upon a question of law raised by the motion of the relator for such
a direction. It is dear that after so many trials there can be no further evidence
produced by either party but that all the evidence relating to the issues is before us.
We are of the opinion that it would be a wrong to the relator to further delay him in
establishing his rights and to compel him to add to the trouble and expense already
incurred in an effort to compel obedience to the law. The verdict of the jury is set
aside and the issues wHl not be again certified to the circuit court for trial but wiU
now be finally disposed of. The averments of the petition have been fully proved
upon repeated trials and the evidence is preserved in the record. The evidence
produced by the respondents affords no support to their answer.
We therefore find that all the material facts alleged in the petition are true as
therein stated and that the relator is entitled to a writ of mandamus as therein prayed,
and it is therefore ordered that a peremptory writ of mandamus issue according to
the prayer of the petition, that the. respondents pay the costs, and that execution
issue therefor.
B. CONTACTS IN CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The public schools furnish one of the most important points of contact
between the white and Negro races, because of the actual number of contacts
in the daily school life of thousands of Negro and white children, and also
because the reactions of young children should indicate whether or not there
is instinctive race prejudice.
The Chicago Board of Education makes no distmction between Negro
and white children. There are no separate schools for Negroes. None of the
records of any teacher or principal shows which children are Negroes and which
RACIAL CONTACTS 239
white. The board does not know how many Negro children there are in any
school or in the city at large, nor how many of the teachers are Negroes.
It was impossible to obtain from the board, for example, a list of the schools
having a large Negro enrolment with which to begin the investigation. An
unfortimate but imavoidable incidental effect of the investigation was the
focusing of attention of principals and teachers on the Negroes in their
schools.
Frequently white teachers in charge of classes with Negro pupils are race
conscious and accept the conduct of white children as normal and pay dis-
proportionate attention to the conduct of Negro children as exceptional and
distinctive. As a result of the focusing of attention on Negro children, the
inquny, which was intended to get balanced information, developed a dis-
proportionate amount of information concerning their conduct a.f compared
with that of whites. Teachers who considered both races were inclined to
believe that Negro children as a group had no special weaknesses that white
children as a group did not also exhibit; that some Negro children, like any
other children, were good, some were bad, and some indifferent, and that no
generalizations about the race could be made from the characteristics or
attitude of a few.
It became evident as soon as the investigation started that it viras necessary
to distinguish between the northern and the southern Negro. The southern
Negro is conspicuous the moment one enters the elementary schools. Over-age
or retarded children are found in all the lower grades, special classes, and
ungraded rooms, and are noticeable all the way to the eight^ grade, where
seventeen- and nineteen-year-old children are sometimes fpund. In some
schools these children are found in the regular classes; in.' others there are
special rooms for retarded children, and as these groups ate often composed
ahnost entirely of Negro children, there is an appearance of segregation which
made necessary a study of these retarded children from the South.
The southern child is hampered first of all by lack of educational oppor-
tunity in the South. He is usually retarded by two or more years when he
enters the northern school because he has never been able to attend school
regularly, due to the short term in southern rural schools, distance from school,
and inadequacy of teaching force and school equipment. According to a
report by the United States Bureau of Education on Negro Education^ 90 per
cent of the Negro children between fifteen and twenty years of age attending
school in the South are over-age. Says this report:
The inadequacy of the elementary school system for colored children is indicated
both by the comparisons of public appropriations and by the fact that the attendance
in both pubhc and private schools is only 58.1 per cent of the children six to fourteen
years of age. The average length of the public school term is less than five months
' Negro Education, I, 33. Bulletin No. 38, 1916. Department of the Interior, Bureau
of Education. 2 vols.
240
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
in practically all of the states. Most of the school buildings, especially those in the
rural districts, are ia wretched condition. There is little supervision and little effort
to improve the schools or adapt their efforts to the needs of the community. The
reports of the state departments of Georgia and Alabama indicate that 70 per cent
of the colored teachers have third grade or temporary certificates, representiag a
preparation less than that usually given in the first eight elementary grades. Investi-
gations made by supervisors of colored schools in other states indicate that the
percentage of poorly prepared colored teachers is almost as high in the other southern
states.'
The inadequacy of Negro teachers' salaries is shown by the per capita
expenditure in six southern states for each white and Negro child between
six and foiurteen years of age. The salary of the teacher, expressed in per
capita for each child, ranges from $5.27 to $13.79 for white pupils and from
$1.44 to $8.53 for Negro pupils. South Carolina pays its white teachers ten
times as much as its Negro teachers. Alabama pays its white teachers
about nine times as much. In Kentucky the per capita for white and colored
is about the same.^
Distribution of school funds by counties indicated a decreasing per capita
expenditure for the Negro as the proportion of Negroes in the coimty increased.
A table from the Bulletin shows:'
County Groups, Percentage of Negroes
in the Population
White School
Population
Negro
School
Population
Per Capita
Expenditure,
Per Capita
Expenditure,
Negro
Counties under 10 per cent
974,289
1,008,372
1,132,999
364,990
40,003
45,039
215,774
709,259
661,329
207,900
$7.96
9-55
II. II
12.53
22.22
$7-23
5-55
319
1.77
1.78
Counties 50 to 75 per cent
Counties 75 to 100 per cent
A southern state superintendent of education is quoted in the report, as
follows:
There has never been any serious attempt in this state to offer adequate educa-
tional facilities for the colored race. The average length of the term for the state
is only four months; practically all of the schools are taught in dilapidated churches,
which, of course, are not equipped with suitable desks, blackboards, and the other
essentials of a school; practically all of the teachers are incompetent, possessing
little or no education and having had no professional training whatever, except a
few weeks obtained in the summer schools; the schools are generally overcrowded,
some of them having as many as 100 students to the teacher; no attempt is made to
do more than teach the children to read, write, and figure, and these subjects are
learned very imperfectly .<
• Negro Editcation, II, 14.
" Ibid., I, 23.
' Ibid., I, 28.
^ Ibid. II, IS.
RACIAL CONTACTS 241
Another difficulty was suggested by the principal of a Chicago school
(Webster) where 30 per cent of the children are Negroes, who said: "We
base our educational ideas on certain backgrounds. The curriculum in Chicago
was planned for children who come from families who are educated. It
doesn't take children coming from uneducated families into consideration.
That isn't fair either to the white or colored children."
The problem of readjustment to life in a northern city also affects the
child's school life, and he is self-conscious and inclined to be either too timid
or too self-assertive. A Negro teacher in speaking of the difficulties confronting
the southern Negro, as well as the whole Negro group, said:
The southern Negro has pushed the Chicago Negro out of his home, and the
Chicago Negro in seeking a new home is opposed by the whites. What is to happen ?
The whites are prejudiced against the whole Negro group. The Chicago Negro is
prejudiced against the southern Negro. Siurely it makes a difficult situation for the
southern Negro. No wonder he meets a word with a blow. And aU this comes into
the school more or less.
Another Negro teacher thus analyzes further the adjustment problems
which tend to make the Negro newly come from the South unpopular with
the Chicago Negro, as well as with the whites:
These families from the South usually come from the country where there are
no close neighbors Then the family is transplanted to Chicago to an apartment
house, and even in with another famUy. The whole environment is changed and the
trouble begins. No sense of property rights, no idea of how to use conveniences,
no idea of how to live in the new home, to keep it up, to live with everybody else so
near. On top of that, the father does not fit into his work, and therefore cannot
support the family; the mother goes out to work, and what is the result? Poorly
kept houses and poorly kept children A normal home shows itself in the school,
and poor home conditions show up still more.
The Negro child bom in the North is not found to an unusual extent
among the retarded children. He has been able to enter school on time and
to attend the fuU term of nine months; his teachers compare favorably with
those in white American and foreign neighborhoods, and his parents as a rule
have a better background. Many teachers say that the progress of northern-
born Negroes compares very favorably with that of whites.
I. PHYSICAL EQmPMENT OF SCHOOLS
Since the Board of Education keeps no record of Negro children as such,
it could not furnish a list of the schools having a percentage of Negro children.
Therefore a list was made up of all the schools in the Negro residential areas,
the boundaries of these schools were obtained from the Board of Education,
and the percentage of Negroes in each school district was worked out from the
1920 census figures. ^The schools listed in Table X were foimd to be situated
242
' THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
in districts where the Negro population was lo per cent or more. The figures
at the right show the approximate percentage of Negro children in the school,
as given by the principal of the school.
Fuller School is a branch of Felsenthal and has the same principal; it is
in a neighborhood where the percentage of Negroes is practically the same as
in the neighborhoods around Felsenthal, but there is a very great difference
TABLE X
Schools in Districts Having an Average Negro Population
or 10 Per Cent or More
School
Colman
Copernicus
Boolittle
Douglas
Drake
Emerson (branch of Hayes) .
Farren
Felsenthal. . .*.
Forrestville
Fuller (branch of Felsenthal)
Haven ~
Hayes
Keith
McCosh
Mann (branch of Raymond) .
Moseley
Oakland
Raymond
Sherwood
Tennyson
Webster
Willard
Percentage of
Ne^oes in
District
8l
l8
6S
72
28
70
69
38
20
42
24
70
89
13
39
46
17
8S
20
14
5°
IS
Percentage of
Ne^ro Children
in School
23
8S
93
24
7S
92
20
38
90
20
80
90
IS
2S
70
26
93
25
28
30
^.3
in the percentage of Negro children in the two schools, according to figures
given by the principal. It appears from this that the principal, who is a
believer in separate schools, places the large majority of the Negro children
in Fuller School. Negroes in the vicinity say that Fuller School is run down
and neglected, that the staff of teachers is below the average, that the school
has no playground of its own but must use the one at Felsenthal, and that aU
the immanageable children are sent there from Felsenthal. It is also believed
by these Negroes that Fuller is used as a feeder for the other schools iu the
neighborhoods where there are fewer Negro children.
The points in regard to physical equipment stressed by a district super-
intendent in the area containing the largest number of schools attended
mainly by Negroes were: date of erection, an assembly hall located on the
main floor, gymnasium, and, in the congested districts, bathroom and lunch-
room. Table XI shows such facts concerning these scIi\ols.
O 9
K <
RACIAL CONTACTS
243
It wiU be noted that only five of these schools, or 23 per cent, were built
since 1900, and four of these five are in sections where the Negro population
is less than 25 per cent. The ten schools serving the largest percentage of
Negroes were built, one in 1856, one in 1867, seven between 1880 and 1889,
and one between 1890 and 1899. Of the 235 white schools 133, or 56 per cent,
were built after 1899.
TABLE XI
Physical Equipment of Twenty-two Schools Attended Largely by Negroes*
School
Date of
Erection
Location of
Assembly Hall
Separate
Gynmasixun
Bathroom
Lunchroom
Colman. . . ,
Copernicus .
Doolittle..,
Douglas
Drake
Emerson. .
Farren
FelsentiiaL ,
ForrestviUe
FuUer
Haven .
Hayes. ...
Keith
McCosh
Mann
Moseley
Oakland. . .
Raymond. .
Sherwood. .
Tennyson. .
Webster
Willard. . .
1887
1907
i88s
1889
1900
1884
1898
1901
1896
1890
188s
1867
1883
189s
1890
1856
1903
1886
1892
189s
1883
191S
None
First floor
Third floor
Third floor
None
None
TUrd floor
Third floor
First floor
None
Fourth floor
Fourth floor
None
None
Third floor
None
First floor
Third floor
Third floor
First floor
None
Basement
None
Yes
Combined
Combined
None
None
Combined
Combined
Yes
None
Combined
Combined
None
None
Combined
None
Combined
Combined
Combined
Combined
None
Yes
Yes
None
None
None
None
None
Yes
None
None
None
Yes
Yes
Yes
None
None
Yes
None
Yes
None
None
None
None
Yes
None
None
None
None
None
Yes
None
None
None
None
Yes
Yes
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
* Data obtained from Directory of the Public Schools of the City of Chicago, ipig-ao, published by the Board of
Education.
Assembly haUs and g3annasiums were totally lacking in seven of the
twenty-two schools, and in the remaining fifteen the assembly haU was on the
third or fourth floor, where, according to the district superintendent, it
cannot have maximimi use for community purposes. A really useful assembly
hall, he stated, should be on the ground floor, opening directly on the school
yard, and capable of being shut off entirely from the rest of the building so
that it could be lighted and heated separately for evening gatherings. Only
three of these fifteen schools had separate gymnasiums. In the others the
gymnasium was combined with the assembly hall. There was little in the
way of apparatus; what there was consisted mainly of hand apparatus, includ-
ing clubs, dumbbells and basket-balls, that could be used in the assembly hall
or the corridors. The district superintendent emphasized the need for gym-
nasiums in Negro residential areas because the children were weak physically
and needed special exercises.
244 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Playground space for schools attended largely by Negroes compares
favorably with that for schools attended largely by whites, though Douglas
School (92 per cent Negro), with 1,513 pupils, has only one playground 96X 125
feet. Most schools have two playgrounds, one for boys and one for girls.
The only other school having such limited play space as Douglas is a foreign
school. Von Humboldt, where there are 2,500 pupUs and the playground is
50X100 feet. Like Douglas, this is a double school with inadequate space
for the children inside the school and outside. Sometimes there is a public
playground near by which reUeves the congestion on the school playground
except in the case of Keith School (90 per cent Negro), the principal of which
emphasized the need for a playground near her school.
In a group of twenty-four schools, six of which are attended mainly by
Negroes, six mainly by white Americans, and twelve mainly by children of
immigrants, it was found that there was no unusual crowding of classrooms
in those attended mainly by Negroes except in the case of Douglas School.
Conditions were practically the same in the three groups of schools.
Indications of overcrowding are the average number of seats in a class-
room, the average niunber of pupils per teacher, and the double-school or shift
system. There is little variation among the three groups of schools in the
number of seats in the classroom and the number of pupils to each teacher,
except that the school having the largest number of pupils to each teacher
(57) is Cohnan, 92 per cent Negro. Although there are no double schools
in the group attended mainly by white Americans, one of the six schools
attended mainly by Negroes and five of the schools attended mainly by children
of immigrants are double schools. Under this system, which is a makeshift
in a neighborhood where another school is needed to take care of the children,
the children go to school in two shifts, one shift an hour later than the
other, and leave correspondingly later in the afternoon. Under this arrange-
ment more children are at the school during the major part of the day than
can be seated in the classroom and the full school curriculum can be carried on
only under pressure, as one group of children must always be hiurried on be-
fore the next group appears.
II. SCHOOL CONTACT PROBLEMS
Information as to problems of contact in the schools was gathered from
conferences to which the principals of high and elementary schools were invited,
and by personal visits to the schools. Thhteen elementary schools were visited,
seven of which had an enrolment of less than 50 per cent Negro, and six of
which had an enrolment of more than 50 per cent Negro. The schools with
the smaller percentage were: Drake (30),' Felsenthal (20), Forrestville (38),
' The figures after the name of the school throughout this section refer to the percentage
of Negro children in the school in 1919-20.
RACIAL CONTACTS 245
Haven (20), Oakland (26), Webster) (30), and Kenwood (a very small
number of Negroes). The schools having a majority Negro were Cohnan
(92), Doolittle (85), Douglas (93), Farren (92), Keith (90), and Moseley (70).
The high schools visited were Englewood, Hyde Park, and Wendell Phillips.
In Englewood and Hyde Park the percentage of Negroes was very small,
while in Wendell Phillips the Negro children were about 56 per cent of the enrol-
ment.
The opinions of principals and teachers about Negro children are a cross-
section of public opinion on the race question with all its contradictions and
irritations. It must therefore be borne in mind in reading this section on school
contacts that whether Negro children are reported good or bad, bright or dull,
quarrelsome or amiable, whether antagonism and voluntary grouping or their
lack are reported, there is an inevitable tendency for the teacher to see the
facts in the Hght of any prejudice or general views she may have on race
relations.
It was thought, for example, that for the purposes of this discussion the
schools could be put in two general groups: those with less than 50 per cent
Negroes and those with more than 50 per cent Negroes. But it was immedi-
ately apparent that no generalizations could be made on the basis of the percent-
age of Negro children in the schools, because sometimes two principals of
schools having the same proportion of Negro pupils reported widely different
experience with reference to friction; and in some cases principals of schools
with a small percentage of Negroes reported friction, while other principals
of schools with a larger percentage reported harmonious relations. The most
important factor determining the attitude of the teachers in a school was
invariably the attitude of the principal. Though there were many cases where
individual teachers held views entirely different from those of the principal,
yet the attitude of the principal was usually reflected in the expressed opinion
of the teachers and in the atmosphere of the school.
But there is no explanatio^for total disagreement between two teachers in
the same school as to whether or not there is race friction in the school
except difference in points of view on the race problem. This factor is to be
taken into consideration in weighing the testimony of teachers regarding
school contacts of the races.
The attitude of some of the principals and teachers was revealed in their
fear that their schools, with 20 per cent or 30 per cent Negro children, would
be regarded as largely Negro schools. The principal of a school with 30 per
cent Negro children considered it an insult to be asked to have his school
take part in a song festival with schools largely attended by Negroes. A
teacher in a school 26 per cent Negro was much incensed because the Board
of Education had sent Negroes to the school to talk to the children on cleaning
up the neighborhood. She said that the white children did not seem to mind
and listened interestedly; it was the teachers who considered it an outrage
246 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
that Negroes should come to " tell a commmiity seven-eighths white to clean
up."
Since the elementary schools and high schools present rather different
problems, due to the greater nimiber of social activities in the latter, it was
decided to consider the two groups separately.
I. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
The contacts in the elementary schools faU naturally under three heads:
classroom contacts, building and playground contacts, and social contacts.
Classroom contacts. — There was much less variety of opinion in regard to
classroom contacts than the other two. Most teachers agreed that there was
little friction so far as school work was concerned, eveh when it meant sitting
next to one another or in the same seats. Most kindergarten teachers found
the most natural relationship existing between the young Negro and white
children. " Neither colored nor whites have any feeling in our kindergarten, "
said one principal in a school 30 per cent Negro (Webster); "they don't
understand the difference between colored and white children." In visiting
one school the investigator noticed that the white children who objected to
holding hands with the Negro children in the kindergarten and first and
second grades were the better-dressed children who imdoubtedly reflected the
economic class and race consciousness of their parents. The Armour Mission
near the school had excluded Negroes from its kindergarten, thereby fostering
this spirit among the whites. A teacher in DooHttle (85 per cent) told of a
little white girl in another school who cried because she was afraid the color
from the Negro children's hands would rub off on hers; in her present school
she has known no such instances in the kindergarten. This conduct is paral-
leled in instances in which Negro children who have never had any contact
with white children in the South are afraid of them when they first come
North.
Most of the teachers in the higher grades reported that there were no signs
of race prejudice in the room. A teacher at Oakland (26 per cent) said that
white girls sometimes asked to be moved to another seat when near a very
dirty Negro child, but that this often happened when the dirty child was white.'
This teacher said it was the white mothers from the South, not the children,
who wanted their children to be kept away from the Negroes. "The white
children don't seem to mind the colored," she said. "I have had three or
four mothers come in and ask that their children be kept away from the colored,
but they were women from the South and felt race prejudice strongly. But
they are the only ones who have complclined."
A teacher in a school 90 per cent Negro said that when doubling up in
the seats was necessary whites and Negroes frequently chose each other.
A teacher at Moseley (70 per cent), when the investigator was present, called
RACIAL CONTACTS 247
upon a white girl to act as hostess to a Negro girl who had just come from the
South, and the request was met with pride and pleasure by the white girl.
On the same occasion a white boy was asked to help a Negro boy with his
arithmetic, and the two doubled up and worked together quite naturally.
"Race makes no difference," declared the principal of a school 92 per cent
Negro (Colman). "The other day I had them all digging in the garden, and
when they were all ready to go in I kept out one colored boy to help me plant
seeds. We could use another boy, so I told Henry to choose anyone out of
two rooms and he returned with an Itahan. The color makes no differ-
ence."
A few instances of jealousy are cited. In one of them resentment ran
high because when a loving cup was presented in McKinley (70 per cent) for
the best composition, it was awarded by a neutral outside jury to a white girl.
The principal of this 70 per cent Negro school, in addition to finding the
Negro children jealous, considered their parents insolent and resentful. On
the investigator's first visit she said that military discipline was the only kind
for children, and that absolute segregation was necessary. At the next inter-
view she said she preferred her school to any other; that there was never any
disciplinary difficulty, and that white children who had moved from the district
were paying car fare to finisli their course at her school.
Discipline. — ^There was considerable variety of opinion among the teachers
as to whether Negro children presented any special problems of discipline.
The principal of a school 20 per cent Negro (Felsenthal), for example, said that
discipline was more difficult in this school than in the branch where 90 per
cent were Negroes (Fuller). This principal is an advocate of separate schools.
She was contradicted by a teacher in her school who said she had never used
different discipline for the Negroes. In schools where the principals were
sympathetic and the interracial spirit good the teachers reported that Negro
children were much like other children and could be disciplined in the same
way. One or two teachers reported that Negro children could not be scolded
but must be " joUied along " and the work presented as play. This is interesting
in view of the frequent complaint of the children from the South that the
teachers in Chicago played with them all the time and did not teach them
anything.
Attittide toward Negro teachers. — Few Negro teachers were found in the
schools investigated.
At Doolittle (85 per cent) there were thirty-three teachers, of whom two
were Negroes. There was also a Negro cadet. At Raymond (93 per cent)
there were six Negro teachers and a Negro cadet in a staff of forty. At Keith
(90 per cent) there were six Negro teachers in a staff of twelve. Two of these
principals said that their Negro teachers compared favorably with their white
teachers and that some of them were excellent. Asked whether there was
248 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
much antagonism if a Negro teacher was assigned where all the children were
white, the principal of a 93 per cent school (Raymond) said there had been one
or two such cases. "They are most successfid in the foreign districts on the
West Side. The European people do not seem to resent the presence of a
colored teacher."
Another principal said that this was especially true where the foreign
element was Jewish. A Negro teacher in a West Side school, largely Italian,
is considered one of the ablest teachers in the school and proved herself highly
competent during the war, when she assisted with the work of the draft board
in the district.
One or two principals said that they would not have Negro teachers in
their schools because the white teachers "could not be intimate with colored
teachers," or because Negro teachers were "cocky," or because "the Defender
preaches propaganda for colored teachers to seek positions in white schools."
Sometimes an effort was made to explain the principal's objection to Negro
teachers by saying that Negro children had no respect for Negro teachers.
One principal whose white teachers were rather below the accepted standard
said that the one colored teacher who had been there was obliged to leave
because of the children's protest against her. A Negro teacher in a 20 per
cent school (Haven) was valued highly by the principal, who advised with her
as to what measures could be taken to prevent the appearance of race feeling.
This teacher formerly taught in a school where there were no Negro children
and had experienced no difficulty in either type of school. "The children
just seem to forget I am colored, " she said.
In Farren School (92 per cent) a teacher of a special room for children
recently arrived from the South expressed the belief that these children "have
a distinct and decided fear of the white teacher and it's up to the teacher to
change this fear into respect." They were very timid at first, she said, due to
the new environment and the contact with so many more people, especially
white. This timidity lasted for about a year and then these children became
more like Chicago children.
Building and playground contacts. — ^At six out of the thirteen elementary
schools some friction about the buildings and on the playgrounds was reported,
and none at the other seven schools. On further analysis it appeared that the
friction reported was general at only two of the six schools. At the other
four the instances cited seemed either to involve a few troublesome individuals
or to be quarrels among Negro children rather than between Negroes and
whites. The two schools reporting general antagonism between Negro and
white children had about 30 per cent Negro children. The principals of these
schools said that the white children were dominated by the Negroes and did
not dare stand up for their rights. The testimony of the principal of one of
these schools showed a disposition to regard many acts as characteristically
racial. For example, she needed no further evidence that a Negro boy had
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RACIAL CONTACTS 249
cut up a white boy's cap than the fact that it was cut with a safety-razor
blade. Although both white and Negro boys commonly carry safety-razor
blades to sharpen their pencils, she thought of razors only in connection with
Negroes. She also believed that "Negro children of kindergarten age are
unusually cruel," and that "Negroes need a curriculiun especially adapted
to their emotional natures." Again she said that a Negro boy who asked to
be put back from the third to the first grade, because the third-grade work
was too hard for him, was typical of Negro children, who "shut down on their
intellectual processes when they are about twelve or fourteen years of age."
In view of the numbers of Negro children in the higher grades who are advanc-
ing normally, this is obviously an unwarranted generalization.
There were some signs of friction at a school 20 per cent Negro (Haven)
when a school largely Italian was combined with it, but the situation
was handled tactfully by the principal and there had been no trouble. At
a school 85 per cent Negro (Doolittle), where the white element was
Jewish, aU the teachers reported that there was no antagonism between the
races.
Voluntary grouping. — The only school where the investigator noticed Negro
and white children playiug in separate groups was Webster (30 per cent),
whose principal reported antagonism between Negroes and whites. At the
other schools natural mingUng was reported by some teachers or observed
by the investigator. At a school 26 per cent Negro (Oakland) three teachers
said that Negro and white children did not mingle on the playgrounds, while
another teacher said they aU played together regardless of color. The priacipal
and twelve teachers at a school 85 per cent Negro (Doolittle) agreed, with the
exception of one teacher who was a southerner, that there was never anything
but the most natural mingling ia the classrooms, about the building and on
the playground. At a school 30 per cent Negro (Drake), the principal of which
stated that the relations between the races were not harmonious, the investigator
observed a free and natural grouping of Negroes and whites of all ages on the
playground. The principal explained that this was "a forced rather than a
natural grouping because of lack of apparatus for all." The white children
at a school 20 per cent Negro (Haven) were ItaUans, Jews, and Greeks, and all
the races played so naturally together that passersby frequently stopped to
watch them.
Social contacts. — There are few social organizations and gatherings in the
elementary schools. The principal of a school 93 per cent Negro (Raymond)
said that there were clubs through all the grammar grades and that the friendli-
ness between the two races was marked, but added:
We have not more than fifty or sixty white children in this particular building.
One white child was elected vice-president, the first white child elected in eight years.
It shows the friendly relationship when a white child coidd be elected to office with
a large preponderance of colored children. A Jewish boy was elected to a smaller
250 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
office of clerk. The white children are not foreign. In their meetings the question
of color never arises at all.
In a few instances principals had found that graduation presented some
difficulties, as white mothers would appear at the school a few days before
and request that their children do not march with Negro children. "About
the only time I see a white mother is near graduation," said the principal of
a school 38 per cent Negro (Forrestville). "They always say they wouldn't
care for themselves, but a friend might see and they would feel ashamed."
" White children prefer not to march with colored at graduation, " said a teacher
at Oakland School (26 per cent), "and mothers sometimes come to ask that it
be so arranged that their girls can march with white girls. They usually say
that for themselves they don't mind, but friends might see and wonder why that
should be."
A number of the schools have orchestras or occasional musical programs.
The investigator heard one orchestra of eleven pieces in Doolittle School
(85 per cent), which played remarkably well. All but one of the children
were Negroes. A teacher in Webster School (30 per cent), where there was
reported to be constant friction between Negro and white children, gave an
incident of a Negro boy in the school playing the violin with a white accompa-
nist and being enthusiastically applauded by the children.
The principal of a 92 per cent Negro school (Colman) reported an unpleas-
ant experience when pupils from her school were invited to take part in a
musical program at a West Side Park.
A group of sixty went with two white teachers in charge. On the way over a
group of foreign women called out insulting remarks to the teachers, but no one paid
any attention. After the program the group started marching out of the park and
were met at the gate with a shower of stones. The teacher told the children to run
for their lives, and they aU had to scatter and hide in the bushes in the park or run
toward home if they could. A rough set of boys had got together and were waiting
for those children, stones all ready to throw. Since that time we have never accepted an
invitation to sing outside our own neighborhood. Invitations have come from time to
time, but the children all come with excuses. AU of them, children and parents through-
out the neighborhood, are afraid but you can't get anyone to come out and say it.
Attitude of parents. — ^Principals and teachers were questioned about their
relations with the parents of both Negro and white children — whether they
received co-operation from the parents in matters of discipline; what was the
attitude of the parents toward Negro teachers; and whether many requests
were received from Negro or white parents for transfers to schools where
there were fewer Negroes.
In general it may be said that the principals who found Negro parents
unco-operative, unambitious, and antagonistic were those who believed in
separate schools, found Negro children difficult to discipline, and would have
RACIAL CONTACTS 251
no Negro teachers in their schools. Such principals declared that Negro
parents were "10 to i in the complaints brought into the office,"' and that
" they fuss over everything and tell their children not to take anything from a
white chUd." They also cited cases of insolence and threats which appeared
to be exceptional rather than typical.
Some teachers said the reason they did not receive any co-operation from
Negro mothers was because a large proportion of them were working. Tardi-
ness and absence were due mainly to this cause, according to one principal,
though a teacher of a room for retarded children in another school said there
was little tardiness and practically no absence in her group. This teacher
expressed the conviction, as did many others, that Negro parents were
appreciative of school advantages and eager to have their children learn.
Principals who came ia contact with both Negro and foreign parents found
the Negro parents much more interested and ambitious than the foreigners.
Even the principal of a school 30 per cent Negro (Webster), who was somewhat
prejudiced in her attitude toward Negroes in the school, said she had more
Negro than white boys able to go to work whose parents wished them to remain
in school.
Negro teachers were apparently acceptable to Negro parents, only one
of the principals or teachers interviewed reporting objections by Negro parents.
One teacher in a school 30 per cent Negro (Webster) said that Negro parents
had their children transferred there from schools with more Negroes, so that
they would have white teachers. The district superintendent said he had had
some difficulty in placing Negro teachers in Negro schools, which he attributed
to the fact that Negro parents felt that Negro teachers had not had the same
opportunity for thorough training as white teachers. Some Negro parents,
however, had indicated that their attitude was not due to beUef that Negro
teachers were inadequately trained, but to fear that too general placing of
Negro teachers over Negro pupils was a step toward segregation.
The principal of a school 90 per cent Negro (Keith) thought Negro mothers
preferred Negro teachers because several had said to her that the " colored
teachers understand our children better."
The district superintendent in the area including most of the schools
Ia,rgely attended by Negroes said that few requests for transfers were made
during the year, but he believed more were made at the request of Negro
than of white parents. A number of these Negro children transferred not to
go to a school largely white but to a school 70 per cent Negro, because they
said they were afraid to go to the school in their own district which was across
Wentworth Avenue. The race feehng between certain groups in this district
was very intense, according to the superintendent. It was especially violent
' A preponderance of complaints from Negro parents could easily be accounted for by a
high proportion of Negro pupils.
252 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
between the Negro children and the Italians and between the Jews and the
Bohemians. The principal of a school 93 per cent Negro (Raymond) also
testified to the spirit of antagonism along Wentworth Avenue:
Wentworth Avenue is the gang Una. They seem to feel that trespass on either
side of that line is ground for trouble. While they will admit colored members to
the school without any trouble for manual training, they have to be escorted over the
hne, because of trouble, not from members of the school, but groups of boys outside
the school. To illustrate: We took a kindergarten group over to the park. One
little six-year-old girl was struck in the face by a man. The condition is a tradition.
There does not seem to be any mahce in it. "He is from the east side, " or "Hit him,
he is from the West Side," are remarks frequently heard.
Transfers from schools with a predominant Negro membership were
reported by one or two principals and teachers in schools with a Negro minority,
who said that the Negro mothers objected to having their children in schools
"where there are so many common niggers." One of the principals said she
had many requests from Negro mothers for transfers from the branch of the
school with 90 per cent Negroes to the main school with 20 per cent. The
Commission did not find in its inquiry among Negro mothers that such an
objection was prevalent, but that most of the transfers requested were due to
the reputation of the school for being overcrowded, poorly taught, and generally
run down.
2. HIGH SCHOOLS
Classroom and building contacts. — In the high schools the ordinary contacts
in classes and about the building become subordinate to the more difficult
problems created by the increased number of social activities — ^athletics,
gymnasium exhibitions, clubs, and parties.
The dean of Englewood High School, which has only about 6 per cent
Negro children, said that the white and Negro children mingled freely with
no sign of trouble or prejudice but thought that if more Negro children came
to the school the spirit would change. A teacher in this same school who had
formerly been at Wendell Phillips, where the majority are Negro, said that
a spirit of friendliness had grown up there between the two races, and race
distinction had disappeared.
There was only one Negro teacher in the high schools of Chicago at the
time of this investigation, the teacher of manual training at Wendell Phillips.
He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and had substituted around
Chicago for several years. Although they spoke very highly of him, none of the
principals of three high schools with small Negro percentages and in which
there were vacancies could use him. The principal of Wendell Phillips, with
a large proportion of Negroes, told, however, of a different experience when
this teacher was at that school. " In answer to complaints by pupils I told
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RACIAL CONTACTS 253
them that this man was a graduate of the University of Illinois, a high-school
graduate in the city, and a cultured man. ' Go in there and forget the color,
and see if you can get the subject matter.' In the majority of cases it worked."
Racial friction about the buildings and grounds was not reported by any
of the high-school principals. " I have not known of a fight between a colored
and a white boy in fifteen years, " said the principal of Hyde Park.
Two principals said that the Negro children voluntarily grouped them-
selves at noon, either eating at tables by themselves in the lunchroom or bring-
ing their own lunches and eating in the back part of the assembly haU. The
gymnasium instructor at Wendell Phillips said that she had no difficulty in
her work if she let the children arrange themselves. The gymnasium instructor
at a school with a small proportion of Negroes said that the white girls had
objected to going into the swimming-pool with Negro girls, but that she had
gone in with the Negro girls, which had helped to remove the prejudice.
Athletic teams. — In the field of athletics there seems to be no feeling between
the white and Negro members of a school team, but the Negro members are
sometimes roughly handled when the team plays other schools. "The basket-
ball team is half and half, " said the principal of Wendell Phillips. He reported
some friction in previous years but said that "this year it is not shown at all."
"They played a strenuous game with Englewood last week. A colored boy
was roughly treated by the other team. Our white boys were ready to fight
the whole Englewood team."
The principal of Hyde Park High School also said that there was no
feeling in his school against Negro members of athletic teams, and that he did
not know of a single instance in which a Negro boy was kept off an athletic team
if he was the best for the place.
Two Seniors in a high school mainly white (TUden) thus described the way
they handled the Negro members of a visiting basket-ball team:
On the way over here fellows on the outside bawled them out, but our fellows
sure got them on the way home. There were three black fellows on the team and those
three got just about laid out. Our team wouldn't play them, so there was a great
old row. Then, when they went home some of our boys were waiting for them to
come out of the building to give them a chase. The coons were afraid to come out,
so poUcemen had to be called to take them to the car line. The white fellows weren't
hurt any, but the coons got some bricks.
Transfers between high schools. — Requests for transfers from Wendell
Phillips to Englewood and Hyde Park schools had been made by both white
and Negro children, according to the principals of the latter schools. The
permits of the Negro children had frequently been revoked after they had
been admitted to classes, and the children returned to Wendell PhiUips.
A teacher at Wendell Phillips pointed out the injustice of transferring a child
in the middle of a term. After a child has been admitted to classes he should
254 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
be permitted to remain through the semester, she beheved, for otherwise a
full term's work was lost because the courses in the schools were different.
"All this transferring is nonsense, anyway," she said. "Children should be
made to go to school in the district where they live and that would end the
trouble."
This teacher told of an incident at Tilden School when a group of Negro
boys registered for entrance:
About sixty colored boys entered Tilden High School either for the regular
high-school course or prevocational work and were thrown out by the Tilden boys.
They made it so hot for the colored boys that the sixty had to withdraw. Some
came back here; others. dropped out of school entirely. It's pretty bad when one
set of boys can put out another set and nothing is done to punish one and call back
the other group.
Two boys at Tilden who took part in this affair gave this version of the
incident:
About thirty colored boys registered at Tilden last fall, but we cleaned up on them
the first couple of days and they never showed up again. We didn't give them any
peace in the locker room, basement, at noon hours, or between classes — told them to
keep out of our way or we'd see they got out. The fellows who were in school before
we didn't tackle — they know where they belong. There's one colored fellow in our
class everybody likes. He's a smart nice fellow to talk to, and he doesn't stick around '
when you don't want him. He didn't say anything when we made the new coons
step around, but I guess he didn't like it very well.
It was this same group of boys who objected to plajdng a visiting basket-
ball team with three Negroes on it and "just about laid them out."
Social activities in high schools. — In high schools, with their older pupils,
there is an increased race consciousness, and in the purely social activities
such as clubs and dances, which are part of high-school life, there is none of
the general mingling often foimd in semi-social activities such as singing and
literary societies. Although Negro pupils do not share in the purely social
activities, they do not organize such activities among themselves.
"The colored never come to social affairs," said the dean of one school.
"They are so much in the minority here that they leave all organizations to
the whites." The principal of this school told of having seen two colored girls
at a class party who danced together for a while and left. "It is the only
time I've seen the two races at the same social gathering."
The dean of Englewood said: "We have colored children m siaging clubs,
in the orchestra, in literary societies, in class organizations, and on athletic
teams. Always when there is a class party there will be five or six colored
children. They will always dance together, but they are present and welcomed
by the white. Between dances it is not uncommon to see white and colored
talking."
RACIAL CONTACTS 255
An incident showing lack of feeling against individuals of special achieve-
ment was given by the principal of this last school:
Several years ago we organized a voluntary orchestra which met after school. The
director accepted all appUcations, among them a number of colored boys. The white
boys balked; it should be white membership or they would leave. As it was near
the end of the year the orchestra was dissolved. The next year I suggested to the
teacher that he fill the orchestra places by a general tryout, so understood, but really
with the poUcy of excluding the colored. This was done and a white orchestra
organized. Shortly, the father of H. F., a colored boy who had been excluded, pro-
tested in my office, saying that his boy had been excluded because of race preju-
dice and that he was going to carry his protest to the Board of Education, for he
knew his boy played better than any boy in school. I admitted that it was a
choice in the school of white orchestra or no orchestra, but that if his boy was the
fine musician he said he was I would gladly see what could be done. Soon after that
H. appeared on a school program and played with remarkable skill and technique.
He was applauded enthusiastically and recalled three times. Straightway the
orchestra members asked him to play with them. He became unusually popular
throughout the school. His standing was the highest and he was awarded a scholar-
ship of $100 allowed by the Board of Education for the best student. He was also
chosen to represent the school on the Northwestern University scholarship, and in
his Freshman year he won another scholarship for the next year. The death of his
parents made it necessary for him to leave college to support his brothers and sisters.
At this time he was stricken with infantile paralysis. The interest on Liberty bonds
taken out by the high school is paid in to H., and when the colored people gave a
benefit for him the pupils sold 500 tickets. He is improving and teaching violin to
thirty pupils at present. His sister is in the school now on a scholarship and is
doing remarkably well also.
At Wendell Phillips the situation was quite different, for there were no school
or class social affairs which were general. There were invitational affairs
to which the Negroes were not invited. AU the clubs in the school were white,
Negroes being excluded. The principal said he would not insist on mixed
clubs until he saw the parents of the children mixing socially. The glee club
was an especially difficult problem because of its semi-pubhc as well as social
character. The Negro children maintained that a glee club composed entirely
of whites was not representative of a school in which the majority were Negroes.
The Negroes had not responded to the suggestion of the principal that they
form a glee club of their own, and as the white children would not be in a glee
club with Negro children, there was constant friction over this club.
Other principals expressed the conviction that the racial problem of school
social affairs could not be solved until the prejudice and antagonism of adults
had disappeared. One principal said he had had to call off an arrangement
for a class affair because the hotel would not accommodate the Negroes.
Another principal thought that the schools would not wait to follow the lead
of the parents in forgetting the race prejudice but would themselves be the
greatest factor in destroying it.
2S6 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Relations with parents. — In most cases the high schools were receiving
splendid support from Negro parents in matters of discipline. "I have never
had a case where the parent did not back up the teacher in the treatment
given to a colored child, " said one principal, speaking of cases where children
had got into difficulty when they complained that the teacher had "picked on
them" because they were Negroes. The parents always made the child with-
draw the statement and admit that the trouble was not due to color at all.
3. TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOLS
Reports were received from three technical high schools, Lane, TUden,
and Lucy H. Flower. Lane and TUden had few Negro students, while in
Lucy H. Flower the Negroes were about 20 per cent. The principals of Lane
and TUden said they were not conscious of any racial difference in their pupils,
that no special methods of instruction were necessary for the Negro children,
that there were no quarrels with a racial background in the schools, and no
voluntary or compulsory groupings of white and Negro. The principal of
Lucy H. Flower found racial differences between the Negroes and whites
which she believed created special problems of education and discipline.
The children got along together very well in school, and whatever quarrels
there were, the principal thought were due to personal dislikes rather than to
race preju(Mce. The colored girls grouped themselves voluntarily at noon and
at dismissa^^e, and the white girls did the same.
m. RETARDATION
I. EETARDATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
With the assistance of the Board of Education a selection was made of
three groups of schools to be studied for comparative retardation. The group
comprised six schools having the largest percentage of Negro children, six at-
tended mainly by whites in neighborhoods where the family income might be
comparable, and twelve attended mainly by children of immigrants. Table XII
gives the number and percentage of accelerated, normal, and retarded children
for each school, for each group, and for the whole group of twenty-four schools.
This table shows the much greater amount of retardation among schools
attended by Negroes than in schools attended by white Americans or by
children of immigrants. The percentage for the group attended by Negroes
is 74, while for the different schools in the group it varies from 67 to 81. For
the two groups of schools attended by white Americans the percentage of
retardation is the same, 49, though there is greater variation among these
schools than among the schools attended by Negroes. In the group attended
by children of immigrants, for instance, only 32 per cent are retarded in the
Jungman (Bohemian) School, while 71 per cent are retarded in the Holden
(Polish) School. A sunilar discrepancy appears in the group attended by
RACIAL CONTACTS
257
white Americans, where the figure is 40 per cent for the Armstrong School
and 62 per cent for the B3^ord School.
tABLE XII
Number and Percentage of Children m Accelerated, Normal, and Retarded Groups
EST Schools Attended Mainly by White Americans, by Negroes, and
BY Children oe Immigrants
School
I
s
s§
Attended mainly by white Ameri-
cans:
Annstrong
Byford
Harper
Howe
Key
Morse
202
1x8
291
220
173
169
21
9
17
17
14
36s
361
609
421
205
45°
39
29
35
35
29
37
355
783
829
577
314
581
19
Total
Attended mainly by Negroes:
Coleman
Doolittle
Douglas
Keith
Moseley
Raymond
iji73'
54
267
136
77
62
112
17
16
9-3
II
7-5
13
2,411
124
261
197
93
95
179
34
17
16
13-7
14
ii-S
20
3.439
S6i
1,099
1,126
497
551
578
19
2
24
Total.
Attended mainly by children of
immigrants:
Bohemian:
Bryant
Hammond ....
Jungmau
Polish:
Chopin
Hibbard
Holden
Italian:
Goodrich
Jackson
Jenner
Jewish:
Herzel
Lawson.
VonHmnboldt.
Totals
Totals for three groups .
708
385
161
375
392
122
157
360
176
609
466
528
4,029
5,910
II
21
12
35
17
29
II
14
15
II
25
16
22
949
735
503
350
631
445
208
240
731
524
731
944
848
IS
37
34
33
36
32
18
22
32
33
30
32
34
4,412
809
795
357
818
535
759
693
1,174
875
1, 08s
1,407
1,072
148
15
19
17
6,890
10,250
32
30
10,379
18,230
36
203
40
62
48
48
46
49
49
75
68
77
75
81
67
74
42
54
32
47
39
71
64
53
56
45
52
44
49
53
941
1,262
1,729
1,218
692
1,200
7,042
743
^,651
1,463
667
830
869
6,217
i,944
1,459
1,082
1,748
1,372
J., 089
1,090
2,26s
1,575
2,425
2,837
2,448
21,334
34,593
* The figures in this column represent children who were listed as being in "ungraded classes" in the Board
of Education records. They are not included with the column of "Retarded" children because the grades of the
"Retarded" children were given in the board of Education records and were used in determining the amount these
children were retarded (see Table XIV). The "Retarded Ungraded" children are included with the "Retarded"
diildren in determining the percentage of retarded children.
The retardation figures for the group of twenty-four schools studied are
close to those for the city at large, 53 per cent retarded in the special group
2s8 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
and SI per cent for the city at large. In the accelerated group the percentage
of accelerated Negro children, ii, is smaller than the percentage of accelerated
white children, 17, or the percentage of accelerated foreign children, ig. This
variation is not so striking as that in the normal group where only 15 per cent
of the Negro children appear to make normal progress as compared with 34
per cent of the white children and 32 per cent of the foreign children. From
this it would appear that there are factors in the lives of many Negro children
which prevent them from making normal progress.
The degree of retardation, as shown in Table XIII is again quite different
for the white and Negro groups.
The largest single groups of backward white American and foreign children
are retarded less than one year (42 per cent of the white American and 39
per cent of the foreign group), and the numbers decrease rapidly as the degree
of retardation increases. In the case of the Negroes 19 per cent are retarded
less than one year. The decrease as the degree of retardation increases is
slower than in the white groups, and many more children are retarded two,
three, four, five years and more. In the white American group only one child
out of 3,439 retarded children is retarded five and one-half to six years, whUe
there are forty-one in the corresponding Negro group out of a total of 4^412.
One white child is retarded six and one-half to seven years, while seventeen
Negro children are retarded this amount; twelve foreign children out of
10,379 retarded children are retarded six to ten years, and thirty-seven
Negro children are found in these groups.
Though the main reasons for the high degree of retardation among Negro
children are set forth in the next section under "Causes of Retardation,"
a partial explanation is to be f oimd in the fact that Negro parents are frequently
more interested in keeping their over-age children in school than white parents,
especially foreign parents, whose anxiety to have their children leave school
as soon as they are old enough to get work-permits is weU known.
Causes of retardation. — It is generally understood of course that comparisons
of Negro with white children are hardly fair, since Negro children have not
had the same opportunities as whites to make normal progress.
A study was made of the reasons why children were retarded in the groups
of schools attended mainly by Negroes, by white Americans, and by children
of immigrants. Records were obtained at the schools for 1,469 Negro children
and 1,560 white children who were listed according to the Board of Education's
classification for retarded children.
Table XIV shows clearly that the predominating cause of retardation among
Negroes is late entrance, which, according to the board's classification, means
that they did not enter school until more than six years of age. This is
generally explained by the fact that the family came from the South, where
there was no school near enough for the child to attend, or the school was
overcrowded, or the family was uneducated and indifferent. In some cases
RACIAL CONTACTS
259
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THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
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RACIAL CONTACTS 261
the parents have come North, leaving the child with grandparents who made
no effort to see that it went to school.
The next most important cause of retardation among the Negroes is family-
difficulties. The fathers are often kept away from home weeks at a time by
their work. A large number of the mothers are working, and the parents'
lack of education is frequently the cause of a home life that is below standard,
physically and morally.
Among the whites, late entrance, inability to speak the language, ill
health, backwardness, and low mentality are the main causes of retardation.
While it is often maintained that the Negro is the mental inferior of the white,
these figures do not bear out that contention. Also the retardation figures
do not show the home life of the Negroes to be productive of as much ill health
as is the case with the whites.
Approximately the same niunber of Negro and white children were retarded
because of irregular attendance.
In addition there were forty- two Negro children and 155 white children
who were classified under two, three, or four different causes for retardation.
Children who were late entering also had some physical difficulty, or children
who were retarded because of family difficulties were also of poor mental
endowment. In some cases such double classification represented a realization
by the teacher that retardation is a complicated and delicate thing which can-
not be explained by one hard-and-fast reason. Others, finding it difficult to
decide whether children were backward, of low mentality, or feeble-minded,
classified them under all three causes. In two instances Negroes were found
to be retarded because they were late entering and "foreign" — that is, they
were handicapped by an "initial lack of the English language."
Intensive study of 116 retarded Negro children. — ^The presence of retarded
Negro children in the Chicago public schools within recent years has been
regarded by many teachers and principals as a problem of Negro education.
Some assume that this retardation is due to an inherent incapacity for normal
grade work. Inquiries of the Commission early disclosed the fact that although
the retardation rate of Negro children was higher than that of white, the great
majority of the retarded Negroes were from southern states, and that Negro
children bom in the North had, as a rule, no higher rate of retardation than
the whites. In the belief that the causes of retardation among Negro children
could be found in the same factors of social background and environment
which operates to retard white children, an intensive study was made of 116
Negro children taken at random from among all the retarded Negro children
in several schools to learn what elements in their former life and present
home environment might explain their retardation.
Out of the 116 children loi had been in school before coming to Chicago.
Of these eighty-six had lived in the South and attended southern schools.
Since this group was chosen at random, the large proportion from the South
262 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
tends to bear out the statements of school principals and teachers that Negro
children from the South constitute the bulk of retarded children. Previous
school records were obtained for eighty-four of these eighty-six southern
children, and in sixty-four cases the children were retarded when they came
to Chicago. Many of them were retarded two and three years, and some
three, four, five, and even six years. Forty-seven of the sixty-four were
retarded more than one year. In a number of cases children who were in the
normal grade for their age in the South were put back one or two grades when
they entered Chicago schools because they were not equipped to do the work
of this grade in the North.
The states from which these children came are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Twenty-three of the eighty-six children who
had lived in the South were from Mississippi— the largest group from any one
state — and of these three were up with their normal grade, eleven were retarded
three or four years, one was retarded six years, and one who was in the normal
grade in the South was demoted two years. One reason for the poor record
of these Mississippi children is undoubtedly to be found in that state's
inadequate compulsory-education law which provides a school term of eighty
days in districts which do not reject the law. Eight of the Mississippi children
lived on plantations which were so far from school that regular attendance
was impossible.
Information gathered concerning the parents of these ii6 retarded children
showed that in eighty-six cases the father was living with his family. In
six cases the father was dead, in one case he was insane, in fifteen cases he had
separated from or deserted the mother, and in eight cases there was no report
on the father.
The mother was found to be living with her family in 112 cases. In two
cases the mother was dead, and in two cases she had deserted father and child.
All of the eighty-six fathers who lived at home were working, though one
was reported as working irregularly, and two as having deserted their wives
occasionally for periods of several weeks. In two of the cases where the father
had separated from the mother he was reported as contributing to the support
of the child.
In forty out of the eighty-six cases where the father was living at home and
working, the mother was also working, and in the fifteen separation cases
where the mother was supporting the diild, she was workiag. The fact that
a total of fifty-five out of 112 mothers, or 49 per cent, were working is undoubt-
edly a large factor in the retardation of the children. The statement was
frequently made by teachers that 40 or 50 per cent of the Negro mothers
worked, and that the child was therefore neglected, and the teacher could
get no co-operation from the mother, as she was never free to come to school
to talk over matters affecting the child.
RACIAL CONTACTS 263
Some teachers felt that many mothers worked where there was no economic
necessity, as the father was earning enough to support the family. It should
be noted in this connection that at the time this material was gathered there
were more opportunities for work than there were men to fill them. Under
ordinary conditions there would doubtless be a certain amount of unemploy-
ment in these Negro families which would cause more mothers to work from
economic necessity. Many of the families investigated, where both parents
were working, were reported as getting on very well, though there were some
cases of real poverty. In a number of instances the families could not seem
to make ends meet on a good income because they were ignorant and did not
know how to spend their money, or because they had not been able to adjust
themselves to city life.
Of the eighty-six fathers who were working, few were in skilled occupations
which would command a substantial wage. Most of the mothers were engaged
in work that took them away from home. A few did sewing, hairdressing,
and laundry work in their homes, but the large majority went out to work.
Work carried on in the home frequently has as bad an effect on the child's
school attendance as the mother's absence, for the child is sometimes kept at
home to help and often finds the work more interesting than school.
The following occupations of mothers of retarded children were noted:
Day work 22 Car cleaner i
Stock Yards 12 Cleaning (hospital) i
Hairdresser 4 Dishwasher i
Laundry 4 Elevator i
Maid 4 Foxindiy i
Barrel factory 3 Housekeeper i
Seamstress 3 Lamp-shade factory i
Domestic service 2 Waist factory i
Box factory i
Education of parents. — Of the eighty-six fathers, thirty-one were illiterate,
and forty-eight had gone to elementary school but had completed only the
second, fourth, or sixth grade. Five of the fathers had gone to high school,
and two were college graduates.
The figures are slightly better for the mothers. Out of 112, twenty-one
were totally illiterate, seventy-six had gone to elementary school, ten had been
in high school or college, and five were not reported on. Eighty-eight per cent
of the mothers, therefore, and 91 per cent of the fathers had less than a high-
school education. Though there were many iUiterate or poorly educated
parents who were eager for their children to have advantages which they
never had themselves, others, as in any illiterate group, no matter what the
color, failed to appreciate the importance of school.
Home discipline. — ^A number of teachers reported that they were unable
to discipline the children in school because they were undisciplined at home.
264 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
In seventy- three of the ii6 homes there was found to be disciplme, in twenty-
two a lack of discipUne, and twenty were not reported on. Disciplme seemed
to be the responsibility of the mother in the large majority of cases, and many
of the twenty-two undisciplined children were boys who were beyond the
control of the mother. In every case but four where there was no discipline
the mother was working, so that the child did not receive much care during
the daytime and the mother was too tired to bother about discipline at night.
Lack of discipline can also be traced to the fact that the child has not always
lived with the parents but with relatives who have been lax in the matter of
discipline.
Home care. — The physical condition of the home, the preparation and
substance of the meals, may be expected to affect a child's health and therefore
his attendance at school. The homes of eighty-four children were reported
to be clean and twenty-five not clean, while seven were not reported on. In
twenty-one cases out of the twenty-five reported not clean, the mother was
working. In forty-seven cases out of the eighty-four reported clean the mother,
was working. In many of the forty-seven cases there was an aimt or grand-
mother who took care of the house.
In many homes the ignorance of the parents was obviously responsible
for failure to provide the kind of food adapted to the needs of the children.
A great deal of fresh meat, usually pork and bacon, potatoes, rice, and coffee
were the staples, while green vegetable, fruits, cereals, and milk were noticeably
lacking. Also, when the mother is away all day the food is hastily prepared,
which usually means that it is fried. The girl who gets home from school before
her mother has finished her day's work usually starts the dinner, or brings some-
thing from the delicatessen. Many children are given twenty-five cents with
which to buy lunch, and in three extreme cases the children were given money
to buy all their meals, with no supervision over what they ate.
Difficulty of adjustment. — ^When all the causes contributing to retardation
were taken into consideration in the histories of the ii6 retarded children
studied, it was still obvious that the greatest stumbling-block to normal prog-
ress was previous residence in the South. The retardation of children from
the South is explained in a variety of ways.
Some of the children from the South did not get along well because they
had not been able to adjust themselves to city life. They had been ac-
customed to the freedom and outdoor life of the farm and did not like the
confined life of the city. They felt timid and shy in the midst of so many
people, as they did not come much in contact with people when they lived
on southern farms four or five miles from the nearest town. Most of these
children had never gone to school for more than a few months at a time, either
because the school term was short or they Uved too far from the school to
attend regularly. Consequently some of them found the nine months' term
irksome.
RACIAL CONTACTS 265
Demotion. — ^A number of children were found to be over-aged for their
grades because they had been demoted one or two years when they came to
Chicago. Some of these had gone to school regularly in the South and
were of normal age for their grades, but the school term was so short that
it was impossible for them to complete the same amount of work in the
same nmnber of years as children in northern schools. Children who were
in the fifth or fourth grade in the South had been put back to the third or second
grade on entering Chicago schools. This sometimes discouraged them so
much that they dropped out of school on reaching fourteen, the age limit of the
compulsory-education law.
Inadequate schools. — Overcrowded and poorly taught schools also are
responsible for the retardation of southern Negro children. One girl attended
a school which was in session only three months a year and where there were
100 to 125 children under one teacher. Consequently this girl was retarded
four years. A boy who, when he came to Chicago, was fifteen years old and
six years behind his grade had always lived in small country towns in the South.
In one of these his teacher was the iceman. "He didn't come to school until
he was through totin' ice around," said the boy. "Then if anyone wanted
ice they comed after him. He wasn't learning me anything so I quit." This
boy was found to be ambitious and was attending school regularly in Chicago
in spite of the fact that he was conspicuously over-age for his grade.
Other causes of retardation. — Some over-age children are extremely sensitive
about their size and are irregular at school on this account. A fifteen-year-old
boy who was 5 feet 8 inches taU was in the fifth grade. He refused to go to
school because h^ was larger than anyone in his class. At one time he was so
ashamed of bei&g seen in the room with smaller children that he would go out
of the classroom "every time a girl passed the door.
As in many white famihes where the importance of regular school attend-
ance is not f uUy understood, work at home or work after school hours is some-
times permitted to interfere materially with school attendance. Older children
are kept at home to look after young children while the parents are away at
work and sometimes when the mother is home. A fourteen-year-old girl who
was three years retarded had always been kept out of school to do housework.
The five younger children were all in the normal grades for their ages but the
fourteen-year-old girl had been out of school so much she had lost interest.
Other children were working after school hours selling papers and delivering
packages and wanted to leave school as soon as possible so that they could
work all the time.
The attitude of the teacher seemed in a few instances to be responsible
for the child's lack of interest. In one case the teacher threw a paper at a
boy instead of handing it to him, and the boy had refused to recite to her
ever since. He went to school but recited to his mother at home. Another
boy had been kept back in school by a misunderstanding between his mother
266 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
and the principal. The principal took the boy home with her to do some work
around her house and kept him until nine o'clock. The mother became so
worried she had the police out looking for him. When she found out the cause
of his lateness coming home, she went to the school and threatened the principal.
The principal afterward refused either to promote the boy or transfer him to
another school.
Recreation. — ^A study of the favorite forms of recreation among ii6 children,
aside from the few who reported that they had no time to play, showed the
movies to be in the lead. Children economized on lunch, buying potato salad
and pickles, in order to have enough left from their lunch money to go to the
movies. One boy who worked outside of school hours made $3 to $5 a week
and spent most of it on the movies; he went three or four times a day if he had
the money. A few children played truant in order to go to the movies.
TABLE XV
Favosiie Recreation of 116 Retailed Negro Children
Movies 85
Baseball 32
Reading 31
Marbles 29
Skating 20
Jumping rope n
Music 6
Jacks 6
Vaudeville S
Running games 4
Singing games 4
Sewing 3
Basket-ball 2
Target practice
Pool
Mechanical toys
Drawing
Dolls
Bicycle
Typewriting
Swinging
Rolling hoop
Card games, checkers, etc 1
Total 248
Most of these children had two and even three forms of recreation, and the
second was usually some form of outdoor recreation — baseball, marbles, or
jumping rope. Most of the younger ones went to the playgrounds, except
those who had housework to do or the few who did not care to associate with
other children.
RACIAL CONTACTS 267
A reference to the section on "Recreation" will show that Negro children
are limited in their recreational activities by lack of recreation centers where
they are welcome. There are playgrounds for the younger children in the
areas of Negro residence, but no recreation centers with their varied indoor
facilities for the older children.
2. OPINIONS ON SCHOLARSHIP OF NEGRO CHILDREN
Progress of the soiUhern Negro. — The retarded Negro child, usually from
the South, who is conspicuous in the elementary schools, has been referred to
in the section on "Retardation in Elementary Schools." In some schools
such children are put in the regular grades, where they receive no special
attention and can progress only one year at a time, though most teachers agree
that retardation is due to lack of educational opportunity rather than to
inabihty to learn. In other schools there are special rooms for these children
where they are advanced through several grades as rapidly as possible.
DooHttle School (85 per cent) had six first-grade rooms for such children.
In one of these rooms there were about twenty-five children from twelve to
seventeen years of age doing aU the lower-grade work up to the sixth. The
teacher said that many of these children who were unable to read or write
when they came from the South showed remarkable progress in a few months,
and in less than a year were able to do fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade work.
"One big girl of thirteen, when she arrived from the South," this teacher
said, "pretended to read with her book upside down, but in a little more than
a year she was doing sixth-grade work. One twelve-year-old boy from the
South, unable to read the primer or write his name, after about nine months
of appUed work just ate up everything I gave him and during the following
year read sixty library books."
A thirteen-year-old girl, just five days in the school, had come from
Alabama, where she had never attended school. " There wasn't room for me, "
she explained. She read for the investigator on the tenth page of the primer,
haltingly but with understanding. The teacher was confident that she
could put her through several grades next year. She said further:
These children who have been deprived in the South of their rights educationally
are very eager. At first they are timid, but they learn very quickly. They're as
smart as whips if they'd just get down to business. Without question this is the kind
of attention all the colored children from the South need when they enter school in
the North. The plan has been successful and should be adopted throughout the school
system. One appreciates by comparison the injustice of putting the fifteen-year-old
newcomer from the South into second grade, requiring of him only second-grade
work over the nine months' period.
Another school, 92 per cent Negro (Farren), has a special room for children
from the South. "Our dull children are almost without exception those
from the South who have never been to school," said the teacher. "Those
268 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
children should not be classed as duU, either, for they learn remarkably fast
and often catch up to grade."
A teacher of the ungraded room in a school 38 per cent Negro (Forrestville)
said:
Practically all of the colored children are from the South, where they have not
been in school. Once they get started they learn very rapidly and often catch up
to the proper grade if they are not too old when they start school. The older children
in this room have good power of concentration and consequently learn much in a short
time. Take, for example, a boy twelve years old who came here not two months ago
from the South. When he came he had no idea how to write his name. A few days
ago he wrote for me a fourth-grade eight-line memory passage with but three mistakes
in spelling. Now I call that remarkable. I have taught in this school all my teaching
years, and they have been many, and have never seen any child equal this, either
white or black.
Capacity for advanced work. — ^Teachers in the seventh and eighth grades
usually found Negro children equal to the work, though in some cases they
felt that these children had been pushed out of the lower grade because of
crowded conditions before they were ready for the more advanced work.
An eighth-grade teacher gave the following statement:
When children get this far they have a good foundation and do their work very
well. One of my colored girls is the brightest child in school — arithmetic is hard for
her but she works at it. One of my colored boys is seventeen years old. He came
here from the South last fall to live with an uncle and to get to a better school. His
father wants him to be a doctor and thought he wasn't getting along as well in the
South as he would in the North. When the boy came to me he said he had been going
to a coUege" in the South. I took him into the eighth grade but saw he didn't have
the fundamentals. On close questioning he told me he had been in the seventh
grade in that college. Now he is doing excellent work for me. He has much broader
interests than the other children. He reads, reads, reads, aU the time and is well
informed.
Other teachers believed that there was nothing to keep the Negro children
from making equal progress with the white, given similar opportunities.
"The progress of the colored children in Drake school (30 per cent) cannot
be compared with that of the white," said an upper-grade teacher, "because
the colored are aU from the South and have had the poorest opportimities.
But comparing a Negro child and a white child who have had the same advan-
tages in school and equal opportunities for observation and example in the
home, the Negro makes the same progress."
" I say that under the same conditions a Negro child will do as well every
time as a white, " said the teacher of an ungraded room in a school 38 per cent
Negro (ForrestviUe). Many do as well as the white and live in very poor
'Many so-called southern "colleges" include elementary and high school, as well as
college work. The term is general and does not mean necessarily an institution of the same
academic standing as a northern college.
RACIAL CONTACTS 269
neglected homes. I think every person who is not prejudiced must admit that
the colored do fully as well in school as the white."
An upper-grade teacher in the Felsenthal School (20 per cent) held a
similar point of view: "The colored are making wonderful strides. They
advance just as rapidly as the white, given equal opportunities. But their
background is so slight and so short in years that one cannot fairly compare
them. The southern colored child must be studied individually to get his point
of view in the school or he gets nowhere in his work."
High-school work. — The principal of Wendell Phillips High School prepared
tables showing the numbers of white and Negro children dropping out at the
end of each school year. They show that the largest nmnber of Negro children
dropped out during the first year, and the largest number of white children
during the first and second years, the number of drop-outs being the same
for both years. Some children repeat the work so that all of them do not
leave school.
One or two teachers in other schools stated concerning Negro children
that a "very limited number go beyond the first year." "They cannot grasp
the subject," said an English teacher; "they do not understand as the white
child does. They lack the mentality."
In the same school the Latin teacher held quite the opposite opinion.
"The colored children are in every way equal to the white children. They are
just as weU equipped mentally and make similar progress. My best student
at present is a colored girl. Her choice of English and her vocabulary and
construction are far ahead of that of any white student."
Several teachers and principals testified to the brilliancy of individual
Negro students who not infrequently had the highest standing in the school.
The principal of an elementary school (Crerar) who had formerly had experience
in a school largely Negro felt that the junior high school would meet the needs
of the Negro children to a large degree:
More of them than the immigrant enter high school but do not stay to finish.
I suppose the parents insist upon some high-school training, but it is necessary
for the child to go to work before he finishes. Another reason for the dropping out
might be the teachers' lack of interest in the child. In the high school you don't
find the teachers taking a keen interest in every individual child as you do in the grades,
and just what colored children need is a keen interest in them. They do better work.
Academic v. other courses. — ^A preference of Negro children for academic
work was reported by principals and teachers at two high schools. This may
be due in part to the fact, testified to by many teachers, that Negro children
excel in languages and music and find mathematics and sciences difficult.
The usual implication was, however, that Negro children took academic work
because they thought it gave them better social standing. A principal who
said that "Negroes want to know nothing about industrial training" and
that " the girls don't care for sewing and cooking, " said on another occasion
270 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
that the majority of children in auto-mechanics, printing, and household arts
were Negroes. He also reported more Negro than white children in the normal
course preparing themselves to be teachers, though this was the first year
that this had been the case.
Comparative scholarship in elementary schools. — ^Negro children are reported
to be slower than the Jews, less responsive than the Bohemians, and more
ambitious than the Italians. A manual-training and domestic-arts teacher
thought Negroes did as good work as the Jews, Bohemians, and white Americans
whom he taught. A Latin teacher said that the Negroes were studious and
ambitious, and that in every way she preferred them to the Jews.
Several teachers thought the Negroes were slow and lacked logic and
"sticking qualities." An upper-grade teacher explained the slowness as
partly due to the fact that they had been pushed out of the crowded lower
grades before they were ready for more advanced work. A physics teacher
who was conviaced that Negro children had no ambition said it was his
policy to promote a Negro child if the child had made the effort, because he
appreciated that the child had come "to the limit of his mental ability."
The principal who said that Negroes had no "sticking qualities" gave
a single instance of a boy who wanted to become a mechanical engineer but
gave up the course after five months, because he said he did not care enough
about the course to work at it for several years. In endeavoring to prove
that Negro children are not successful in completing high-school work, this
principal emphasized the fact that in the 3-B class 20 per cent of the Negroes
dropped out as compared with 6 per cent of the whites. In actual numbers
three Negroes and two whites dropped out. He did not mention that in the
2-A class 12 per cent of the whites (sixteen children) as compared with 3 per
cent of the Negroes (three children) dropped out. In the 4-B grade 21 per
cent of the whites (three children) and none of the Negroes dropped out.
The fact that 21 per cent of the whites dropped out was explained by the
principal to be due to the fact that the white children wished to graduate
from a high school wholly white. However, only three children were involved.
Attendance and failures. — ^Table XVI shows the record for attendance and
failures in three groups of schools attended mainly by Negroes, by children
of immigrants and by white Americans. It will be noticed that the best
attendance records are found in Douglas and Farren schools, both mainly
attended by Negroes. The other schools, attended mainly by Negroes,
compare favorably with those attended by whites.
The smallest percentage of failures is at Cohnan (92 per cent), while the
next to the largest percentage is also at a school attended mainly by Negroes
(Raymond, 93 per cent). This may be explained to a certain extent by the
fact that there is a higher economic class of Negroes in the neighborhood of
the Cohnan School. In the other schools the percentage of failures compares
very favorably with that of whites.
RACIAL CONTACTS
271
TABLE XVI
Enrolment, Average Attendance, and Number op Failhres in Twenty Schools
School
Enrolment
Average
Attendance
Percentage
of
Attendance
Number
of
Failures
Percentage
of
Failures
Attended mainly by Negroes:
Colman, 92 per cent
Doolittle, 8s per cent
Douglas, 93 per cent
Farren, 92 per cent
Forrestville, 38 per cent
Haven, 20 per cent
McCosh, IS per cent
Moseley, 70 per cent
Raymond, 93 per cent
Webster, 30 per cent
Attended mainly by children of immigrants
Farragut
Goodrich
Kosciusko
Lawson
McCormick
Seward
Smyth
Swing
Attended mainly by white Americans:
Fiske ;
Rowland
964
1,784
I;443
986
1,493
1,16s
1,280
923
i,S32
80s
1,729
1,30s
1,134
3,069
1,432
^,os8
1,106
810
i,S3S
2,161
709-
1,282
1,341
924
1,08s
700
1,017
60s
1,299
6S4
1,S02
i,039
77S
2,S4S
1,266
708
860
629
1,272
1,809
73
72
93
93
73
60
79
66
8S
81
86
78
68
83
88
67
77
77
83
84
13
1.8
77
6.6
83
8.9
130
12.0
24
3-4
81
133
200
iS-4
107
121
33
292
204
43
69
99
45
100
7.0
II. 6
4.2
ii-S
16. 1
S-9
8.0
IS. 8
3S
S-o
C. CONTACTS IN RECREATION
In studying contacts between the races at places of recreation a survey-
was made of the various recreational facilities maintained by the Miuiicipal
Bureau of Parks, Playgrounds, and Bathing Beaches, the South Park Commis-
sion, the West Chicago Park Commission, and the Lincoln Park Commission.
Recreational f acihties maintained by twelve park boards which control smaller
areas in outlying parts of the city were not included in the survey unless they
were in or near Negro areas. Visits were made by the Commission's investi-
gator to places in or bordering on the Negro areas at a time of day when the
use of the park would be greatest; the director or one of his assistants was
interviewed and observations were made as to the relations between Negroes
and whites.
The information thus gathered was supplemented by a conference held
by the Commission, at which representatives of the various park boards
discussed policies and experiences with reference to race relations in the various
recreation places under their charge.
I. CLASSIFICATION OF FACILITIES
Although there is no definite city-wide classification, the publicly main-
tained recreation facilities of the city may, for the purpose of this study, be
grouped by types and defined as follows:
272
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
1. Playground. — ^A small tract of land, usually adjacent to public schools,
providing space for ball games, gymnastic and play apparatus, and in most
cases a small building used as an ofl&ce and storage place for apparatus.
2. Recreation center. — Including outdoor and indoor gymnasiums for men,
women, and children, a swimming-pool, and a little children's playgroimd
out doors, and a field house providing an assembly room and dance hall, club-
rooms, shower baths, and often an infant-welfare station and branch library.
3. Large park. — ^A large area with lawns, shrubbery, and general recreation
facilities, such as tennis, golf, baseball, and boating.
4. Bathing-beach. — Intended primarily for swimmers and usually including
no other recreation equipment. A dressing-house, showers, and towel supply
are provided with life guard and attendants on duty.
5. Swimming-pool. — ^In some instances a swimming-pool or natatorium
is maintained separately from a recreation center.
n. DISTRIBUTION OF FACILITIES IN RELATION TO NEGRO AREAS
Of a total of 127 public places of recreation excluding the large parks,
thirty-seven are in or near Negro areas. Of the eighty-two playgrounds,
fourteen are in the Negro areas and nine are adjacent. Of the twenty-nine
recreation centers, none is located within the Negro areas, but seven are
adjacent.
Though these figures seem to indicate that the Negro areas are fairly
well supplied with recreation faciUties, it should be borne in mind that their
use by the Negroes in their vicinity is by no means free and undisputed. The
reasons for this are shown in the next section on "Use of Facilities," but the
following summary of use will aid in considering the distribution of recreation
facilities in relation to the Negro areas:
Total for
City
In Negro
Areas
Near Negro
Areas
Number Used
10 Per Cent
or More by
Negroes
Playgrounds
Recreation centers
Bathing-beaches . .
82
29
8
14
None
3
13
I
I
The type of recreation facility most commonly found in the Negro areas
is the playground. The lack of recreation centers within the Negro areas is
conspicuous, as is also the fact that six of the seven recreation centers accessible
to Negroes are not used as much as 10 per cent by them. The playground is
intended for the use of young children and has practically nothing to attract
older children and adults, except sometimes a baseball or athletic field. Indoor
facilities are not a part of the equipment of a playground, so that the average
maintenance cost of a playground is not more than $2,000 to $5,000 a year.'
' See illustration facing this page.
RECREATION
^\ FACILITIES
« PLAYCROUNDa
■ RECREATION CENTCRfl
O- SwiMMwa Pools
3 Bathing Beaches
The NAMC3 or THE RtCRCATlON
rACELITlCa OiaCU03CD IN THE
REPORT ARE SHOWN ON THE MAP
SCALE OF MILCa
RACIAL CONTACTS 273
The recreation center is the most unusual and notable feature of Chicago's
recreation system but one from which the Negro gets little benefit. It is a
complete community center, with both indoor and outdoor facilities. It
represents an investment of from $200,000 to $800,000, according to the
amount of ground, the location, and the extent of its facilities. The yearly
expenditure necessary to maintain such a recreation center where older children
and adxilts can hold meetings, dances, and entertainments, and where there
are concerts, indoor games, swimming-pools, showers, etc., is shown by the
reports of the park boards to be from $30,000 to $50,000. Though the argu-
ment that wholesome recreation makes for better citizenship applies to Negroes
as well as to whites, no recreation center has been located within the Negro
areas and only seven near them.'
The director of Armour Square, a recreation center which is just beyond
the edge of the main Negro area, but which the Negroes do not feel free to
use for reasons discussed later, was asked what places of recreation for adult
Negroes existed in that neighborhood. She instanced a social settlement
that had been out of existence for more than six years, an infant-welfare station
and a commercial amusement park known to be in bad repute.
Although in recent years the Negro population has been increasing in
density in the neighborhood directly east of Wentworth Avenue along which
Hardin, Armour, and FuUer recreation centers are located, this has not increased
the use of these centers by Negroes. It has tended, rather, to increase the
antagonism of the whites in the vicinity to the use of the centers by Negroes.
In this neighborhood the hostility toward Negroes of whites, especially gangs
of hoodlums, is shown by the many attacks upon Negroes in this area as dis-
cussed in the sections on the "Riot of 1919" and "Antecedent Clashes."
Several representatives of the park boards strongly deprecated the lack
of recreation centers within the Negro area and said that such facilities should
be provided. The South Park representative recommended the area east of
Wentworth Avenue between Thirtieth and Forty-seventh streets as one
needing additional facilities. The West Park representative said : "A complete
all-year-round recreation center for the colored people should be established
at Ashland and Lake streets. We need greater facilities, or equal facilities,
for the colored people. There isn't any place on the West Side that I know of,
but yet we have many of these complete recreation centers there for the whites."
Although the Negroes on the West Side had never asked for additional facilities,
the white people in that neighborhood had frequently asked the West Park
Commission to provide greater facilities for the Negroes. The Negroes in
the district were not organized, according to the West Park official, but the
white pebple realized that something ought to be done for the Negroes and
made the request.
The director of Seward Park said the maintenance cost was the chief
obstacle to additional recreational facilities. "The law permits acquisition
274 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
of property for small parks by request of citizens and bond issues for the
purchase of the property and its development," he said. "When it comes to
maintenance the question of taxes comes in, and unless people are willing to be
taxed in excess of what they are taxed now, there won't be any possibiUty
of maintaining more parks."
Though there are three public bathing-beaches near the main Negro area,
the whites seem to expect Negroes to confine themselves to the Twenty-sixth
Street Beach. It is quite limited and unattractive in approach and surroimd-
ings. The approach is over a rough road through a much-neglected neighbor-
hood, and then up a long flight of stairs to a four-foot viaduct over the railroad
tracks, and a roundhouse and switch yards are near by. The beach is a strip
of sand about fifty feet wide and a short block in length; it narrows at one
end to the tracks and at the other end is walled by a high embankment.
While it offers a chance to get into the lake, the atmosphere of wholesome,
recreative outdoor life is entirely lacking.
In the Morgan Park region there is a large Negro population but no park
or playground within its Negro area. Barnard Playground and Ridge Park
are the nearest facilities, a mile or more distant. Negro children said they
did not go there because "those are in Beverley Hills and only rich folks go
there — no colored people." The directors of these parks said there was no
discrimination against Negroes but that they did not come because they felt
that these parks were "for white folks only."
III. USE OF FACILITIES
Table XVII gives estimates by the officers in charge of the Negro attendance
at the places of recreation in or near the Negro areas.
Factors influencing attendance. — Out of the thirty-five playgrounds, recrea-
tion centers, and bathing-beaches in or near the Negro areas for which attend-
ance figures were secured, at fifteen Negro attendance never amounted to
more than lo per cent, and usually was less. In several cases distance or such
barriers as railroad tracks seemed to explain the small percentage of Negro
patrons. In other cases it seemed due to the existence of other facilities nearer
the center of the Negro area which were more largely patronized by the Negroes ;
an example is Stanton, which though not far from the Negro area is farther
than Seward Park. The small number of Negroes at other places often could
not be explained by the director. At Gladstone Playground, for example, in a
neighborhood where the Negro population was increasing rapidly, practically
no Negro children were found, though the white children said there were
plenty of Negro children in the school. "They don't stick around after
school hours or in the summer," said the children, but no one appeared to
know why this was the case, as there had never been any difficulty at this
playground. Negro children used Drake and Sherwood playgroimds much
RACIAL CONTACTS
275
TABLE XVII
Number of Negroes Attending Parks and Playgrounds in or near Negro Areas
AND Their Percentage of The Total Attendance
Name
Average Daily
Attendance
School
Time
Through
Year
Vaca-
tion
Time
Percentage oe Total
Daily Attendance
School
Time
Through
Year
Vaca-
tion
Time
South Side District:
Twenty-sixth St. Beach.
Thirty-eighth St. Beach.
Fifty-first St. Beach
Moseley Playground, Twenty-fourth St,
and Wabash Ave
Colman Playground, Forty-sixth and
Dearborn Sts
Doolittle Playground, Thirty-fifth St.
near Rhodes Ave
Oakland Playground, Fortieth St. and
Langley Ave
Beutner Playground, Thirty-third St. and
LaSalle St
Sherwood Playground, Fifty-seventh St.
and Princeton Ave
Drake Playground, Twenty-seventh St.
and Calumet Ave
McCosh Playground, Sixty-sixth St. and
Champlain Ave
Carter Playground, Fifty-eighth St. and
Michigan Ave
Fiske Playground, Sixty-second St. and
Ingleside Ave
Fuller Park Recreation Center, Forty-
fifth St. and Princeton Ave
Armour Square Recreation Center
Thirty-third St. and Shields Ave. . . .
Hardin Square Recreation Center,
Twenty-sixth St. and Wentworth Ave,
Washington Park .
Jackson Park
Ogden Park District:
Copernicus Playground, Sixtieth and
Throop Sts
Ogden Park Recreation Center, Sixty-
fourth St. and Racine Ave
South Chicago District:
Thorp Playground, Eighty-ninth St. and
Buffalo Ave
West Side District:
Robey Playground, Birch and Robey Sts.
Mitchell Playground, Oakley Ave. and
Ohio St
Washington Playground, Grand Ave. and
Carpenter St
200
SCO
Soo
900
3S0
800
600
1,400
1,500
1,100
1,200
1,200
I, soo
1,500
I. SOO
800
27,000
47,000
1,400
3,000
soo
soo
1,200
150
700
500
400
1,000
900
600
4SO
SOO
1,000
800
3S0
800
200
SO
25
9S
Less than i
Less than i
80
90
90
7S
67
None
2S
IS
2S
2
3
I
I
lO
2
16
Less than i
20
5
I
276
THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
TABLE 'KXil— Continued
AvEKAGE Daily
Attendance
Percentage or Total
Dailv Attendance
Name
School
Time
Through
Year
Vaca-
tion
Time
School
Time
Through
Year
Vaca-
tion
Time
West Side District— Co»«.:
Otis Playground, Grand Ave. and Armour
St
200
I
McLaren Playground, Polk and Laflin
Sts
300
1,300
400
400
Closed
Gladstone Playground, Robey St. and
Washbume Ave
I
Hayes Playground, Levitt and Fulton
Sts
Union Park Playground, Washington St.
and Ashland Blvd
i,SOO
300
i,Soo
2,000
60,000
40
None
S
North Side District:
Northwestern Playground, Larrabee and
Alaska Sts
>!
Orleans Playground, Orleans St. and
Institute PI
ISO
1,500
400
300
S
Franklin Playground, Sigel St. near Wells
St
2S
Sedgwick Sts
IS
I
IS
Stanton Park Recreation Center, Vine
and Rees Sts
Maxunum attendance, 100,400. Negroes approximately, 19,000.*
*0f these ig^ooo about 200 use the beaches, 4,zoo the playgrounds, 700 the recreation centers, and 14,000
the large parks.
less, or not at all, after school hours and in summer. At Drake, though the
two races mingled in games in the daytime and no disorders had occurred,
the Negro boys took no part in the games in the evening when the older white
boys were home. This, the director said, was due not to timidity or fear of
aggression, but rather to "lack of ambition." At Sherwood Playground,
west of Wentworth Avenue, where 50 per cent of the children using the play-
ground during school hours were Negroes, there were no Negroes on the
playground in the afternoon and evening and all summer. This was said
to be due to the fact that the Negro children in the school, especially the girls,
were larger than the white children and during the school session were the
dominating group. After school, however, the older white children got home
from other schools or from work and assumed control, allowing no Negroes in
the playground. The Negroes then went to Carter Playground, which is
east of Wentworth Avenue, in the main Negro settlement. This separation,
the attendant stated, was due entirely to action on the part of the children, as
the oflGicials did not discriminate in any way. This neighborhood has been
much disturbed and is discussed in more detail under " Contacts."
04
O
o
RACIAL CONTACTS 277
Representatives of each park commission said that they had no rules
or regulations of any kind discriminating against Negroes, and that all races
were treated in exactly the same way. The only case in which this rule
appeared to be violated was in connection with Negro goK players at Jackson
Park. Two Negroes participated in the Amateur Golf Tournament at Jackson
Park in the summer of 1918 and made good records. The only requirement
for entrance into the tournament at that time was residence in the city for one
year. In 1919 the requirements were increased, entries being limited to the
lowest sixty-four scores, and membership in a "regularly organized golf club"
beiag required. Since Negroes are not accepted in established golf clubs, the
Negro golf players met this qualification by organizing a new club, "The
Windy City Golf Association." In 1920 the restriction was added that contest-
ants must belong to a regularly organized golf club affiliated with the Western
Golf Association. As it was impossible for Negro clubs to secure such affiha-
tion, it is impossible for Negroes to compete in the tournament.
Unofficial discrimination, however, frequently creeps in. According to the
representative of the Municipal Bureau, " the person in charge of the park is
largely iofluenced by the attitude of the people outside the park. We had
trouble at Beutner Playground because of the tendency on the part of the
director, who was a white man, to be influenced by the attitude of the white
people in the neighborhood, and either consciously or unconsciously showed by
his actions to the colored people that they were not fully accepted." Beutner
Playground later became an example of unofficial discrimination in favor of
the Negroes, for the Municipal Bureau decided to " turn over the playground
particularly to Negroes" and instructed the director "to give them more use of
the facilities than the whites." But this was found to be impossible as long as
a white director was employed, because he was influenced by the feeling of
the whites in the neighborhood who did not want the playground turned over
to the Negroes. The desired result was finally obtained by employing a
Negro director. "Then the switch suddenly came," said the park represent-
ative, "and the playground was turned over to the Negroes almost exclu-
sively."
A similar method was employed with reference to the Twenty-sixth Street
Beach, according to the head of the Municipal Bureau, who said: "As the
colored population gradually got heavier and more demand came for the use
of that beach it gradually developed into a beach that was used almost exclu-
sively by Negroes. And we did as we did in the Beutner case: we employed
a Negro director when the preponderance was Negro."
This beach has since been transferred to the South Park Commission,
and there is no longer a Negro director there, though most of the attendants
are Negroes.
Park policemen will not let Negroes go in swimming at the Thirty-eighth
Street Beach, according to a Negro playgroimd director. " The park policemen
278 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
tell you, 'You can't go in, you better not go in, I'd advise you not to go in,'"
said the director. " If you try to go in he keeps you out.'?
The Negro director of Beutner Playground reported an unpleasant personal
encounter with the policeman of Armour Square. " Last summer I had occasion
to go over there with my assistant who is colored. We went to the library
and the park police officer we met said, 'niggers ought to stay in Beutner
Park.'" Policemen in Armour Square also had helped to drive out Negro
boys who had gone over there to use the showers, according to this director.
In addition he said that Negro boys had been refused permits to play baseball
at Armour Square. The director of the park said, in answer to these state-
ments, that there was no discrimination on the part of the management and
if such things had occurred it was without the knowledge of the management
and due to the fact that the applicants did not see anyone in authority. "The
only appHcants I have had for a colored baseball team this year was for an
outside industrial team, and they were given permission," said the director.
"Whether the police officer followed them up and told them they shouldn't
come back, I don't know, but they didn't come back. I gave them the permit
to come."
At one or two parks definite efforts had been made to encourage larger
numbers of Negroes to make use of the facilities, but at Armour Square the
director did not believe this to be advisable. "I have never gone out to do
any promotional work to bring them in, " she said, "because I would not choose
personally to be responsible for the things that would happen outside my
gates if I were responsible for bringing large groups into Armour Square.
If such groups come to me for reservations I give them, but they don't come."
This director also said that she would feel it necessary to warn any Negro
group that might come to her park that she could not be responsible for their
protection outside the park.
At Union Park, which has a playground and swimming-pool and is situated
on the edge of the densest Negro residential area on the West Side, every effort
has been made to encourage the Negroes of the neighborhood to make use of
the limited facilities, according to the representative of the West Chicago
Park Commission, who said:
We have advertised among the colored people and done everything we could
to get them to use the swimming-pool, shower baths, and reading-room, and send their
children to the playground. The result to some extent is satisfactory but of course
they are not using it in proportion to the population of the Negroes in that neighbor-
hood. That, I think, is pardy due to the fact that we ought to have some other
facilities there. We ought to have some equipment for boys over sixteen years of
age, and we ought to have an assembly hall, a regular library, clubrooms, and other
facilities for the recreation of older boys and girls.
The director of Fuller Park told of a special effort he had made, with the
assistance of a Y.M.C.A. physical instructor, a Negro, to increase the use of
RACIAL CONTACTS 279
the park by Negroes living east of Wentworth Avenue. The Y.M.C.A.
instructor guaranteed to get the people, and 400 application blanks were
distributed among Negro children in the Sunday schools of the neighborhood.
AU the blanks were signed with the names of Negro children between eight
and sixteen and returned to the oflBice. When the classes started a few weeks
later, no Negro children appeared. The distributor of the blanks tried for
three or four weeks to find out why the Negro children did not come but
failed to discover any reason. Then the director sent a notice to the Defender,
a widely circulated Negro newspaper, saying that the children who had signed
application blanks for classes at Fuller Park were requested to come at any
time and were just as welcome as white children. Thereupon a few children
came — two or three out of a class of thirty. Additional notices were put
in the Defender, and an effort was made to interest the Negro pastors, but the
attendance did not increase, and finally the attempt was given up for that year.
The next year a similar effort was made but with only slightly better results.
At the band concerts and moving pictures the Negro attendance is fairly good,
and a large number of Negroes use the library, but the gymnasium and the
children's playground are used very little by the Negroes, and the swimming-
pool practically not at all.
The reasons advanced by the park officials for the non-use of convenient
recreation facilities are that the Negro is timid and reluctant to go where he
feels he is not wanted, or that he fears attack in the park or near it. At a
conference the West Park representative said:
When we first opened the doors of Union Park we thought, owing to the large
colored population in the district, that the colored people would come there most
wiUiagly and avail themselves of the facilities just as freely as any person would.
But we found that it was not so, that the greater number of persons who came there
were the whites, and they as usual availed themselves of the faciUties freely. The
colored were timid, came in gradually, and as soon as they found they were welcome,
that there was no line of discrimination drawn, the attendance of the colored increased.
At Sherwood Playground, Armour Square, and FuUer Square, all west of
Wentworth Avenue, which is considered the dividing line between the white
and Negro areas, fear is probably a large factor in the small Negro attendance,
as the feeling in the neighborhood is bitter and fights have been frequent.
At Sherwood Negro children use the playground during school hours when
they feel that they have the protection of the school, but not after school
when they feel that protection is lacking. Webster School at Wentworth
Avenue and Thirty-third Street, which is 30 per cent Negro, has its graduation
exercises in Armour Square, but the Negro children do not go to Armour Square
at any other time, and they did not go over at night for an entertainment which
the principal of Webster School arranged at Armour Square. Negro children use
the Armour Square library freely, according to the director, but there has
never been an application for the use of a clubroom, and no Negroes come to
28o THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
the outdoor moving pictures which are given one night a week. "There's
absolutely nothing to prevent them coming," said the director. "Why don't
they come? There is nothing within the park they need to be afraid of.
There has been absolutely no distinction made in the handling of colored
children or colored men or colored women coming to Armour Square, but
they do not come." The director was positive that the failure to come to
the park was due to the attitude toward Negroes outside the park. She
explained that although she could guarantee safety and police protection
inside the park, she could do nothing to protect Negroes outside the park
gates. The park poUcemen are employees of the park boards and not of the
city and have no jurisdiction outside the parks. This is true of the police at
aU parks and beaches maintained by the park boards, but the police at the
playgrounds and beaches maintained by the Municipal Bureau of Parks,
Playgrounds, and Bathing Beaches are members of the regular dty police
force.
Continuing, the Armour Square director said:
Personally I know of no disturbances that have started within Armour Square,
and yet we have had outside of Armour Square every year at least two riots, not count-
ing the general race riot — riots that started largely in school clashes. There have
been some very serious riots between the children of the Webster School and the
Keith School just east of it, and there have also been some very serious clashes between
the black and white children going to and from the parochial school — actual fights in
which they have had to call large detachments of the police. Armour Square is
not used by the colored people in proportion to their numbers in the neighborhood,
but it has absolutely nothing to do with our management. It is because they are
afraid to come to the park. They know absolutely that within the four walls of the
park nothing is going to happen to them.
The testimony of the Negro director of the Beutner Playground seemed
to indicate that Negroes were kept out of Armour Square in ways that its
director did not know about.
IV. CONTACTS
Behavior. — The behavior of Negroes at the parks apparently has not been
the major cause of the diflSculties that have arisen in the past. Such complaints
as were made by park officials in regard to the behavior of Negroes at the parks
concerned groups of rough or do mineerig duldren at the playgrounds rather
than adults.
The playgrounds where the attitude of Negro children was criticized
were Sherwood and Moseley, both in neighborhoods where unusually bitter
racial feeling was reported by the playground directors. The older Negro
girls were particularly rough and hard to control, these officials said, abusing
small children both white and Negro, monopolizing apparatus, and refusing
to leave the playground when asked to do so.
BEUTNER PLAYGROUND
The largest in the Negro residence area
FIELD HOUSE EQUIPMENT AT BEUTNER PLAYGROUND
NEGRO ATHLETIC TEAM REPRESENTING DOOLITTLE PLAYGROUND IN
CITY-WIDE MEET
FRIENDLY RIVALRY
White and Negro boys at a playground near the Negro residence <
RACIAL CONTACTS 281
Testimony in regard to adults indicated that the park directors found
them quiet and desirable patrons of the parks. Said the director of Seward
Park:
One of the most interesting and best-conducted and best-behaved groups I have
ever seen is a group of colored people known as the "Jolly Twenty," a dancing
organization. They started coming eight years ago and had a system of couple
dancing which was marvelous. I have never seen it equaled anywhere. They have
been coming every year, once a year, for a dance at Seward, and the "JoUy Twenty"
has grown to be about the " JoUy Four Hundred, " but the larger the group the better
they seem to behave and the better they dance.
The director of Ogden Park told of a Negro club which holds frequent
dances at Ogden Park. He said: "About 300 attended the last one. They
are the best-behaved group that come. I never have to object to improper
dancing or boisterousness, and they always leave on time, have had to
object several times to conduct at white dancing parties."
This testimony in regard to Negroes at dances is interesting in view of
the situation regarding the recreation facilities at the Municipal Pier. Negro
attendance there is about 8 per cent of the total attendance of four million or
five million a year, according to the director of the Pier. They are well dressed
and well behaved and inclined to segregate themselves. There had never
been a single instance of an intoxicated Negro or of one who had made himself
in the least objectionable, the director said. The only people whom the pier
authorities have had to reprimand for violation of pier rules in regard to
cleanliness, monopolizing of furniture, etc., have been whites. Many of the
attendants are Negroes, and the band which plays for the dance concessionaire
is composed of Negroes. Negroes are welcome everywhere on the Pier, as
are all races, according to the director, except in the dance hall, where their
appearance is discouraged by the concessionaire. The following method is
followed to discourage the appearance of Negroes on the dance floor, according
to a white man who had observed it:
Admission to the dance floor is at the rate of five cents per couple, per dance.
Each dance lasts about three minutes. If a Negro couple buys a ticket and dances
one dance nothing is said. If the couple comes in for another dance, one of the
floor managers — employed by the concessionaire — speaks courteously to the couple.
He expresses regret that he must mention the matter of their dancing to them, but
that they are not dancing properly, and he invites them to come to a corner of
the dance floor where he wUl instruct them in the proper way to dance. This usually
occupies the remainder of the particular dance, and results in the Negroes not coming
on the floor again. If the couple does reappear, the floor manager again speaks to
them saying he is very sorry he has to tell them again that they stiU are not dancing
quite properly and again he invites them to a corner of the dance floor for further
instruction. This is the procedure by which the Negroes are embarrassed and dis-
couraged from using the dance floor.
282 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
Relations between the children.- — ^Lack of antagonism was reported at a
large number of playgrounds. Apparatus was used by both groups without
friction, Negro and white children mingled freely in their games and in the
swimming-pools, and both Negroes and whites played on baseball and athletic
teams. Occasional playground fights had taken place, but usually without
any element of racial antipathy. "There might be personal misunderstandings
and disagreements between a white and a black just the same as between two
whites," said the director of Union Park, "but I wouldn't lay it to race prej-
udice. They work together and play together and seem to harmonize in
most instances." When this director came to Union Park a year before he
found a tendency among Negroes and whites to group by themselves, but
steps were taken to bring them together in games of various kinds, and toward
the end of the season the director felt that they "harmonized better and worked
together more cordially than they did before." When the investigator from
the Commission visited Union Park Playground, he saw the small children
playing together on the same pieces of apparatus — a Negro child on one end
of a teeter ladder and a white child on the other.
These children were ten years or under. The director felt that it was
not until children reached the age of eleven years or older that they began
to feel racial antipathy. In the swimming-pool at this park, which is used
by the older children and adults, the Negroes and whites kept separate. There
was no trouble between them, but they stayed in separate groups. The director
felt that there was httle likelihood of trouble ever starting in this park, because
"where such nicknames as 'Smoke' are appUed to colored boys by white boys,
and is given and accepted in a friendly spirit, there is httle chance for serious
disturbance."
As this playground in Union Park is intended for children under ten, the
occasional difficulties between older children might be alleviated if the Hayes
Playground, one of those in the system maintained by the Municipal Bureau,
were kept open in the summer. The playground at the Hayes School, 80
per cent Negro, was closed and the apparatus dismantled in the summer of
1920 when the investigator visited it. Though it is not a large playground
it is the one the older Negro children are accustomed to use during the school
year, and they are doubtless reluctant to go in the summer to other school
playgroimds which they do not ordinarily use.
At Seward Park the Negroes use the facilities freely and play with the
white children on the apparatus and in the ball field. The only difficulty
reported here was in coimection with a wresUing tournament. The director
described it as follows:
Last season we had a wrestling championship tournament. There were some
colored groups who had wrestled at Seward who were eligible for entrance into this
tournament, and when the night came for weighing in, the director for one of the
other parks said, "What are these colored people doing here ? " "They are weighing
RACIAL CONTACTS 283
in." I said. "They will not wrestle with my group," he said. " Very well, then,
I guess your groups will not be in it," I said.
It looked as though we were up against a problem, but the night when the wrestling
came the colored contestants didn't show up, so that the problem was solved for that
time. Of course we couldn't say that any white man must wrestle with a colored
man. It presented a problem that had to be settled in some way. I think the reason
they didn't show up was because I told my investigator to say to these colored men,
"Next season if you have a sufficiently large group you can have a contest of your
own. We'U award the same prizes to colored wrestlers as we do to the white."
The representative of the Municipal Bureau also spoke of occasional
difficulty in wrestling, though there may be no objection to Negro participation
in other events. He said:
We have athletic meets in which a Negro team has competed and for five years
has won the championship in athletics. In baseball there is no trouble. The difficulty
comes in some of the activities, particularly wrestling, because of the nature of the
activity. It is a closer contact. We make no distinction, however, and when a
Negro boy gets up to face a white boy and the white boy doesn't face him, the bout
is forfeited to the Negro. I think more meet than fail to.
At Fiske Playground, where there are few Negroes, as they do not live
near, the investigator witnessed a baseball game with a team from Colman
Playground composed entirely of Negro boys except the pitcher. They played
as any teams would, with no evidence of racial antipathy. The Negro team
seemed to be the better, and according to the director had won every game
so far that season.
At McCosh, Robey, Carter, Oakland, Colman, Doolittle, and Beutner
playgrounds the children mingled without friction, according to the directors.
Negroes were in a minority at the first three and in a majority at the last
four. At Carter Playground the investigator witnessed the presentation of
a medal for athletics to one of the white boys while the Negro boys looked on
in admiration and, after it was over, invited the white boys to " come on out
and play baU." The only trouble that has been experienced at this playgroimd
was a few days before the 1919 riot, when a fight between a white boy and a
Negro started on the playground and the spectators divided along racial lines,
especially after the fight was transferred to the street. A riot call was sent in,
and the police put a stop to the fight. No trouble has occurred since and the
director believed it could not happen again. "The boys have learned better, "
he said.
Free mingling of Negro and white children was observed at Oakland and
Robey playgrounds and was encouraged by the directors. Italian and Negro
boys were playing baU together when the investigator visited Robey Play-
ground, and Negro and white girls were playing on the same slides. The
director said that in the evening the ball games were watched by both Negroes
284 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
and whites, and that frequently the Negroes had a game themselves, which
white onlookers enjoyed watching. The only incident of importance at
Robey Playground had occurred a few day before, when a dispute over a
baseball game arose between a white boy of fourteen and two Negro boys of
eleven, resulting in a fight in which the director had to interfere. The director
said there was not the slightest chance that such a fight would divide the
playground along racial lines, as there had never been any disorders there,
and that animosity between the Negro and white groups was entirely lacking.
At Oakland Playground, where neither race predominated strongly, the
assistant director said there had never been any difficulty. The investigator
witnessed a ball game in which Negro and white girls participated and saw
groups of Negro and white boys talking outside the playground in a friendly
manner.
At Cohnan, Beutner, and Doolittle playgrounds, where the Negroes
come in the majority, no difficulties were reported. The Negro director of
Doolittle Playground encourages comradeship between Negro and white
children and allows no discrimination against white children. "If a white
boy can make a team, he makes it, " this director says to a Negro team which
objects to a white boy being allowed to play on it. When this director was
assigned to Doolittle Playground he was told that 60 per cent of those who
made use of the playground were Negro and 40 per cent white. When he
got there he found that 70 per cent were white and 30 per cent were Negroes.
He said:
I had to look around to find a colored child, but I never had any trouble. Of
course the white people gradually moved out and the colored people moved in. We
never had any trouble with colored boys or white boys — they played on the same teams.
In fact, I think we won the district championship for four years. Then they moved
me over to the Beutner and the majority of the white children got up a petition to
bring me back to DooUttle Playground. That shows there was no distinction there.
They wanted me because we carried on activities.
White ball teams often use the field at Beutner Playground in spite of the
fact that Armour Square is only two blocks away. "Last year [1919] there
were several games between white and colored teams," said the assistant
director, "but there have been none so far in 1920."
No difficulties between Negroes and whites were reported at Palmer
Park, Bessemer Park, or Thorpe, Otis, and Orleans playgrounds, which are
patronized by a few Negroes, though they are too far away from the Negro
areas to be generally used.
The supervisor of girls' work in the Municipal Bureau made the following
statement in regard to the relations between the Negro and white children
visiting the municipal playgroimds:
From my observation and supervision of the girls' work in the municipal play-
grounds I can only say that in aU oiu: activities colored and white children mingle
without restriction. In indoor gymnasium and dancing-dasses as well as in games,
RACIAL CONTACTS 285
athletics, and general informal use of the playground, they take part together. Ability
and sportsmanship are the only qualifications considered in candidates for any play-
ground team. In the field of adult recreation, since we have no community centers
conducting indoor activities in connection with any of our playgrounds within the
colored area, my observations refer only to outdoor gatherings. On such occasions
adults of both races mingle without friction. It is my experience that the most
harmonious relations are established in connection with band concerts, field days,
festivals, pageants, etc., including aU. forms of community art, which tend to unify
rather than to split those taking part. In the Illinois Centennial Pageant, presented
by groups from thirty-eight neighborhoods in 1918, girls from Doolittle Playground
represented "Dances of the New Freedom," bringing "Liberty and New Strength to
Illinois." In preparation of this episode several rehearsals were held at Doolittle
Playground, white dancers from other playgrounds taking part; and the interest
and co-operation shown by the neighbors made each evening memorable.
Voluntary racial grouping. — ^Voluntary racial grouping appears to be a
characteristic of the large parks and beaches, which adults frequent, rather
than of the playgrounds which are used mainly by children. One instance
of volimtary grouping among children was found at Copernicus Playground.
The percentage of Negroes using this playground is much larger in summer
than in winter. The playing space is in the shape of an "L, " one end intended
for boys and the other for girls, but by common consent the children divide
along race lines rather than sex. The investigator saw small white children
playing at one end of the playground, while Negro boys were playing ball in
the larger end. Later, after the Negro boys left, some of the white children
used the larger space while some Negro children collected around the apparatus
in the smaller end. No instance of mixed play was observed, but there seemed
to be no antagonism between the groups, and no disorders were reported.
The director of Union Park in speaking of boys who play games in the
recreation rooms, said that there seemed to be a tacit understanding between
the blacks and whites that they had certain nights. On certain nights all
the attendance would be black and on other nights it would all be white.
Asked whether Negro and white boys who were school friends played separately
at the park, the director said that blacks and whites often came in together,
but that for every case where they came in together and played a sociable
game, there were probably three instances where groups were either of one
race or the other. However, the director said that this grouping was casual,
and that there was no prevailing conununity sentiment that the Negroes
should use the park on separate nights. He believed that additional recreation
facilities would help greatly in doing away with this tendency to voluntary
segregation. He also said that the Negroes had a tendency to separate from
the whites, not because they wished to avoid them, but because they preferred
to associate with their own race.
In the general use of Lincoln and Washington parks the Negroes and
whites stay in separate groups. There has never been any difliculty, according
286 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
to the Lincoln Park representative, arising from the fact that Negroes have
taken possession of a spot desired by whites for a picnic or other amuse-
ment. No part of either park is especially set aside for the use of one race,
and groups of both Negroes and whites are seen everywhere in the parks,
but they do not mingle. While there was no outward evidence of antagonism
toward Negroes at the time of the investigator's visit to Washington Park,
white visitors who were questioned showed an antipathy to the Negro which
seemed to have its basis in the influx of Negroes into the residence districts.
One man, originally from the South, was bitter against Negroes. He said he
had left the Socialist party because it accepted Negroes as equals. At an
open-air "free-speech" meeting speakers representing various radical doctrines
were addressing a crowd composed almost entirely of whites. The chairman
of the meeting, however, was a Negro, whose himiorous remarks made him
popular with the white crowd.
The only place in Washington Park where there seemed to be a general
mingling of Negroes and whites was on the ball field. There were games in
which the two teams were composed entirely of Negroes, and games in which
the teams were composed entirely of whites; there were also games in which
both Negroes and whites were engaged. The investigator watched one game
in which vacancies on two teams from American Legion posts had been filled
by Negroes. There was the best of spirit between the players and among
the spectators. The white spectators were lined up along the first base line
and the Negro spectators along the third base line, but rooters and players
joked with each other with no sign of racial antagonism.
The South Park representative testified to the good feeling between
Negroes and whites at a baseball game, and said the whites often preferred
to watch the Negro games. At other points in the park, however, particularly
the tennis courts and the boathouse,difiS.culties between the races were reported.
These wiU be discussed in the next section on "Clashes."
Separate racial grouping is the general rule at the beaches, though it is not
always voluntary. At the Thirty-eighth Street Beach, for example, Negroes
are prevented by white boys and the park poUceman from going into the water,
according to a Negro playground director. "Boys who live around there
from Thirty-ninth to Thirty-first Street have to swim at the street end between
Thirty- third and Thirty-second. They rock you if you go in." This director
was invited by white boys of the Vinceimes Club to swim at Thirty-eighth
Street, but when he suggested bringing some Negro boys along the white boys
said, "Oh no, they can't come."
At the Diversey Beach in Lincoln Park both races go in the water, but a
Lincoln Park representative said that the few Negroes who used this beach
kept by themselves on one part of the beach, though there was no official
rule compelling them to do this. There have never been any racial disturbances
at this beach.
ARMOUR SQUARE RECREATION CENTER
Located at Thirty-third Street and Shields Avenue
I '[/
/Tf!
*,-,4' <
BEUTNER PLAYGROUND
Located at Thirty-third Street and La Salle Avenue
RACIAL CONTACTS 287
From the Twenty-sixth Street Beach, whicl^ is patronized almost entirely
by Negroes, down to Thirty-srsth Street, Negroes and whites go into the water
in separate groups, except at Twenty-sixth Street, where the few whites who
go in mingle amicably with the Negroes. The investigator saw a white couple
who had gone out to a raft and could not get back rescued by a Negro life
guard. The other bathing-places along the shore for those ten blocks have
been allotted by custom exclusively to one race or the other. At Twenty-
ninth Street, where the 1919 riot started, a policeman is now stationed, and
no trouble has occurred since the riot, though many fights have started which
the police have stopped. Gangs of young men come from as far as Halsted
Street, according to the poUcemen, ready to fight at the slightest opportimity.
Fights usually occur because of some remark made by one group about a girl
in another group. On the whole, however, few Negroes come to Twenty-ninth
Street, the poUceman said, going instead to Twenty-sixth Street.
At the beaches outside the main Negro area, such as Fifty-first Street
and Triangle Park, and Clarendon and Rogers Park beaches to the north, the
only Negro patrons are a few young children. The attendants at these
beaches beheve there would be trouble if adult Negroes started to use them.
Negro children have been objected to at Clarendon Beach, where a man
asked the director to put a httle girl out because "she was a nigger."
Several directors reported that the Negroes did not use the swimming-pools
much and segregated themselves when they did go in. The director at Union
Park said the Negroes did not use the swimming-pool ia proportion to their
numbers, and that when they did use it, they came in small groups and confined
themselves to a certain part of the pool instead of mingling with the whites.
He said that there was nothing in the attitude of the white boys to make them
do this, but that it was the "natural impulse of the colored people to do that
in the swimming-pool." He thought that many Negroes did not use the pool
more because "they are afraid of the water." A Negro playground director
testified that he had frequently seen a white boy dive off one side of the pool
at Union Park when a Negro boy dived off the other side and hold the Negro
boy down until, when he came up, he was gasping for air.
The director of Ogden Park gave an incident that had occurred recently
at that park:
One day I noticed three small colored girls sitting among the others in the "swim-
ming Hne" waiting for the doors to open. A few minutes afterward they were at the
end of the hne. I tried to find out the reason but could discover nothing either from
the colored girls or the others. I saw that they went back to the place in the line they
had before and went to my office. Some minutes later I looked out and saw that while
the swimming had begun, these three had not gone in but were sitting there watching
the rest. I was unable to discover why they didn't go in — they said merely that
they "didn't want to." Whether there was some threat or whether the girls were
naturally timid about going into the pool I do not know.
288 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
The representative of the South Park Commission said that in the South
Park district the parents were opposed to race contacts in swimming- and
wading-pools. "Not lo per cent of the families will allow contact with
Negroes in the pools," he said.
None of the three natatoriums maintained by the Municipal Bureau is
patronized by Negroes, with the exception of the Washington Heights pool
which is used by a few Negro children in the summer. This pool is near a
Negro district, but the other two are remote from the Negro areas.
A distinction was made by several directors between formal and informal
activities at playgrounds and recreation centers. It was their theory that
Negroes and whites mingled successfully in informal activities, but not in
formal ones. "There is a difference in the informal use by children of a
playground and the use of a recreation building where there are clubs and
dances and classes and things of that sort, " said the director of Armour Square.
" Children and adults come in individually to use the Ubrary and other facilities,
but there are no appUcations from organized groups of Negroes for any of the
facilities at Armour Square." The real distttiction in most cases is probably
not between formal and informal use but between use by children and use
by adults, as the formal activites are those in which older children and adults
engage, as was pointed out by the representative of the West Chicago Com-
mission.
Clashes. — Clashes between Negroes and whites at various places of recrea-
tion are reported as far back as 1913. These clashes in the main have been
initiated by gangs of white boys. In 1913, for example, the secretary of boys'
work at the Wabash Avenue Y.M.C.A. (for Negroes.) conducted a party of nine-
teen Negro boys from the Douglass Center Boys' Club to Armour Square. They
had no difficulty in entering the park and carrying out their program of
athletics. The party then took shower baths in the field house. The
Y.M.C.A. secretary had noticed the increasing crowds of white boys near-by
but had no misgivings until the party left the park. Then they were assailed
with sandbags, tripped, walked over, and some of them badly bruised. They
were obUged to take refuge in neighboring saloons and houses in Thirty-third
Street west of Shields Avenue. For fully half an hour their way home was
blocked, until a detachment of city poUce, called by the park poUce, scattered
the white gang.
That same year the Y.M.C.A. secretary had found it impossible to proceed
east through Thirty-first Street to the lake with groups of Negro boys. When
this was tried they inevitably met gangs of white boys, and fights ensued
with any missiles procurable. Attempts to overcome this antagonism by
continuing to demonstrate that the Negro boys had a right to use these streets
were unavailing for the next two years.
In 1915 similar conflicts occurred. That winter Father Bishop, of St.
Thomas Episcopal Church, took a group of the Negro Y.M.C.A. boys to Armour
RACIAL CONTACTS 289
Square to play basket-ball. The party, including Father Bishop, was beaten
up by white boys, their sweaters were taken from them, and they were otherwise
maltreated. The Y.M.C.A. staff then decided not to attempt to use the park
or field house during the evenings.
The same year an attempt was made to take seventy-five of these boys
through the Stock Yards. They had received tickets of admission to the
annual stock show, in the pavihon at "the Yards." In spite of the four adult
leaders, several of the boys were struck by sticks and other missiles while passing
from one section of the show to another. The gang of white boys continually
increased in numbers, and the situation by three o'clock, two hours after the
Negroes had entered, began to look desperate. Police assistance was required
to get the Negro boys safely out of the building and into street cars. No
effort was made to restrain the white gangsters, who were allowed to range
through the building at will.
An altercation between white and Negro boys in Washington Park is on
record as early as the summer of 1913. These boys were sixteen or seventeen
years of age. During the spring and summer of 1919, numerous outbreaks
occurred because of the use of the baseball diamonds in Washington Park
by Negro players. White gangs from the neighborhood of Fifty-ninth Street
and Wentworth Avenue, not far from the park, also came there to play baseball,
among them some of "Ragen's Colts."' Gang fights frequently followed
the games. Park policemen usually succeeded in scattering the combatants.
The same season gangs of white boys from sixteen to twenty years of age
frequently annoyed Negro couples on the benches of this park. When the
Negroes showed fight, minor clashes often resulted.
In Ogden Park, as far back as 1914, there were similar instances of race
antipathy, expressed by hoodlums who were more or less organized. A Negro
playground director said that if Negro boys attended band concerts in that
park, white gangs would wait for them outside the park, and the Negroes
were slugged. The white gangs also tried to keep Negro boys from using the
shower baths at the park. This director told how a party of Negroes whom
he had taken there was surrounded by white gangsters when they emerged
from the shower house. "A boy reached around and caught me and puUed
me up close to the other feUow," he said. "I dug down and got out. Of
course they rushed for me. In the rush the other colored lads got out. Brass
knuckles were used on me. When I looked up they said, 'My God, you have
hit L — ; you have hit the wrong fellow.' " The director declares that the
man who hit him with the brass knuckles was discharged by the court with a
reprimand.
This condition in the parks continued up to the early summer of 1920.
George R. Arthur, secretary of the Negro Y.M.C.A. branch, expressed the fear
at that time that a riot might occur in Washington Park any Sunday afternoon.
•See p. 12
290 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
He described the condition in the vicinity of the boathouse in that park as
"fierce." There were fights there every Sunday. Five white men had beaten
a Negro there one night the previous week. That sort of thing had been
going on for years, he said. The Y.M.C.A. had long been dealing with the
situation but he had noticed this trouble especially in the last two years.
He attributed it to the gang spirit and to racial antipathy, which ordinarily
would not amount to much, but which because of the tense situation in Chicago
might lead to serious riots.
The director of the Negro branch of Community Service of Chicago
ascribed the trouble to the same source. He said that most of the white boys
came to Washington Park from the "Ragen's Colts" Club, that some of them
went to poolrooms where the mischief was hatched. There was but one
policeman in charge of about fifteen baseball games in the park, he said.
The racial difficulties at the baseball fields in Washington Park had doubt-
less never been brought to the attention of the representative of the South
Park Commission, because he cited these games as an example of good feeling
between the two races. He believed that there was never any difficvilty at
the baseball fields, and that the white people who enjoyed the Negro games
would be the first to object if the Negroes were not permitted to play in the
park. This opinion coincides with the situation at the ball fields observed by
the investigator for the Commission, but apparently there are occasional clashes
here as in other parts of the park.
The representative of the South Park Commission did not think Negroes
hesitated to use any of the facilities of the park because of fear of mistreat-
ment in the park, though they might have , some fear of being mistreated
outside the park. He did not know that any difficulties have ever occurred
at the boathouse. though a Negro doctor testified that he had treated many
Negro boys who had been assaulted there. The South Park representative
said:
I have never known of any actual abuse of a colored patron in any park to which
I was personally assigned. I have known people coining and going who were abused,
mistreated, and actually assaulted, outside the park reservations, but I don't believe
our records would show very many cases — ^probably no more than occur where the
Poles and the Irish get together, or the Bohemians and the Germans.
Fights of a racial character were reported at one or two playgrovmds. At
Franklin Playground, where fights among boys between ten and fourteen are
frequent, the director said he was always especially careful to stop a fight
between a white and Negro boy because "a race riot would be easy to start."
At Sherwood Playground Negro children do not use the playground after
school hours or during the summer. The attendant declared that "things
used to be mighty rough but are better now." The change may have been
due to a younger group of children replacing the former pupils, among whom
were many children fourteen to seventeen years of age. There was much
RACIAL CONTACTS 291
fighting between Negroes and whites in the neighborhood of Sherwood Play-
ground, according to the attendant. Street fights were frequent, often ending
in the use of knives or stones, and numerous arrests had been made. The
fight usually started between two boys over some trivial dispute, a mixed
crowd gathered, and the fight became general. Fights were also frequent
within the playground, the attendant said; sometimes as many as three
were going on at once. But a policeman had been stationed near-by, and
conditions were improving. The playground had no director at the time it
was visited.
An example of objection to the first Negroes appearing in a park was
given by an official of the Municipal Bureau:
I remember a particular instance at the Beutner Playground in about 1903.
Prior to that time we had very few colored people in that vicinity. One evening a
young colored boy, probably seventeen or eighteen years of age, came in there. I
happened to be on the athletic field at that time. He came in the rear gate, and the
first thing I noticed there was quite a crowd of white fellows chasing this fellow all
over the field. He ran down to where the Armory now stands, doubled, and came
back and got out of the gates.
This official said that after that incident there was little trouble between
the races at the playground until about 1910, when the balance of the patronage
became almost equal. He continued:
That was when the trouble started. There wasn't any preference shown on the
part of the park management to any particular race, but it was the people outside.
They absolutely took the stand that as long as they could keep the colored people
away they were going to do it. They used every means they could to keep the colored
people away from Beutner Playground and Armour Square.
Another instance of whites objecting to the use of recreation facilities
for the first time by Negroes was given by the representative of the West
Chicago Commission:
Not long ago, two colored men, for the first time in the history of Garfield Park,
came out there to play tennis. Immediately somebody in the neighborhood called
up the Park Board and complained about Negroes breaking into Garfield Park.
We frankly told the people who were complaining that they had equal rights to the
use of the facihties at Garfield Park. But it seemed that while we said nothing,
the colored gentlemen never appeared again to use the tennis facilities.
The representative of the South Park Commission in commenting on this
same point said:
There is a history of development in amicable race relations. Most of the
troublous conditions are where there is injected for the first time the question of
racial intermingling. Where it is estabUshed, where it has gradually grown up, in
time there comes an adjustment.
292 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
At Armour Square individual Negroes have been accepted as "part of the
scheme," according to the representative of the South Park Commission,,
practically ever since the park was opened. But the director says that it is
group action which stirs up trouble:
I think the trouble wiU adjust itself as the colored people continue to come into
the neighborhood, but we are in the situation of having colored people come into the
neighborhood where there haven't been any before. I think it will adjust itself in
a year or so, and that possibly at that time colored people will begin coming.
The head of the Municipal Bureau thought the difi&culties arose, not when
Negroes first entered a white neighborhood, but when a balance between the
two races was struck, and it was a question which race was going to predomi-
nate. "That has been my experience with the municipal playgrounds,"
he said, citing the case of the Beutner Playground which the Municipal Board
decided to turn over to the Negroes.
Where Negroes are accepted and live amicably near white people, or where
there has not been enough influx of Negroes to arouse feeling against them
the contacts in the playground are usually peaceful. On the other hand,
in communities where Negroes are looked on as intruders and objectionable
neighbors, and where the white people are antagonistic, a contact between a
Negro and white chEd, which would normally be peaceful, will result in a
disturbance and tend to increase existing antagonism. This is the situation at
Moseley and Sherwood playgrounds.
At Thirty-eighth Street Beach the prejudice is such as to prevent any Negro
from bathing there, although it is as near the center of the main Negro area
as the Twenty-sixth Street Beach, to which Negroes are expected to confine
themselves. At Armour Square neighborhood sentiment permits a few Negroes
to use the park, but trouble starts if new groups come. At Ogden Park a
Negro playground director was assaulted by white boys and hit with brass
knuckles in 1914, but now, according to a prominent Negro familiar with the
situation at the center, there is order and fair treatment both within the park
and on the way to it, and the Negroes prefer to travel out there than to go
to Washington Park, which is closer at hand, but where they may be attacked
if they try to use a boat or may be obliged to wait indefinitely for a tennis
court.
The use of the parks by Negroes is determined almost entirely by the degree
of antagonism in the neighborhood, and Negroes are afraid to make use of
the parks where the neighborhood sentiment is hostile. "The neighborhood
condition pretty much governs the feeling of security, on the basis of which
the Negro will come in and use our park facilities," said the representative
of the South Park Commission. "Without feeling secure in his neighborhood
and in his access to the park, I don't think anything we could do would pull
the Negro in."
RACIAL CONTACTS 293
At Mitchell Playground, in a district with a reputation for lawlessness,
and at Seward Park, two blocks from a region known as "Little Hell," no
racial difficulty is reported.
The two causes of neighborhood antagonism most commonly cited were
the real estate and the sex problems. Among visitors to Washington Park
the real estate problem in the residence districts near the park seemed to be
the primary cause of ill feeling. One of the property owners in that region
showed his feeling by complaining that the park ought to be rechristened
"Booker T. Washington Park." The figures in Table I indicate that only
about 10 per cent of the patrons of the park are Negroes.
An important point in considering neighborhood sentiment is whether the
white hoodlum who appears to be mainly responsible for the clashes which
have taken place is a cause of neighborhood antagonism or whether he merely
reflects the attitude of the community. The fact that the hoodlimi is permitted
to terrorize and mistreat Negroes without serious protest from whites is an
indication that the hoodlum expresses what the white community feels. The
hoodlum does not always live, however, in the immediate neighborhood of
the place of recreation where he makes trouble. The gangs of white boys
who come down to Twenty-ninth Street Beach and start trouble, for example,
do not live near the beach, the policeman in charge says, but over at Halsted
Street. The director of Armour Square, though she stated that the feeling
in the immediate neighborhood of the park was responsible for keeping Negroes
away from Armour Square, said that the boys who were active in starting
trouble at the time of the 1919 riot came from west of the park, and that the
boys in her vicinity tried to stop the others.
The head of the girls' work in the Municipal Bureau said:
It [hoodlumism] is a symptom, the reflection and logical carrjring out of an attitude
widely accepted by the community as a whole. Although a serious and troublesome
symptom, I believe it should be faced and' welcomed as evidence of the potential
brutality of this attitude. Men and women of good standing in white society condone
much that they would hesitate to do in person; and by their failure to protest prove
themselves equally responsible for results.
The director of Fuller Park beheved that the groups of hoodlums mainly
responsible for keeping Negroes out of the parks were the athletic clubs "com-
posed usually of a bvmch of young sports that are not athletes at all." "These
clubs, which have only about one athlete on the roster, " he said, " are so situated
that the Negroes have to pass them going to and from the park. Those are
the boys, numerous in every park neighborhood, who are keeping the colored
people out of the parks."
The director of Ogden Park took the part of a Negro boy set upon by a
white gang during the 1919 riot and rescued by the pohce, though they did
not keep the mob from killing the Negro. He advocated the formation of
294 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
"square-deal" clubs to defend innocent people from hoodlums. "Members
would be bound to fight for the square deal — ^whites against white hoodlums
and blacks against black hoodlums," he said. "Until both races will act,
the lawless elements will continue to cause trouble."
It is possible in some cases, such as those in which the "athletic clubs"
are involved, to find out the identity of boys who molest Negroes, but, according
to the testimony of several park directors, it is absolutely impo^ible to control
these boys because the courts wiU not convict them. The director of Armour
Square stated:
I have had boys taken down to the coiu'ts time after time, and now my policeman
refuses to take them down to the court any more, because he is reprimanded when he
brings them in One of our attendants was shot through the limg and is now
absolutely incapacitated for work, and the policeman was reprimanded because he
had kept the boy in jail two nights. When it came to trial, they had already seen
somebody and the policeman got the reprimand.
There was a general feeUng among park representatives that the presence
of a director with a proper attitude toward the problem was the greatest
factor in bringing about amicable relations within the park, but there was
considerable difierence of opinion as to whether the park management could
or should attempt to influence the surrounding neighborhood. The West
Chicago Commission representative said that there was no instructor at
Union Park the first year it was open, and that considerable segregation and
undesirable conduct on the part of both whites and Negroes resulted. Since
then, there had always been a director in charge, and a very harmonious ming-
ling of the two races had been brought about on the playground. He beheved
that a similar relationship could be brought about within the recreation building
by a director with the right personality, if adequate facilities were provided.
The Seward Park director did not consider it a proper function of a recrea-
tion center to try to direct the community life outside it.
The director of Armour Square felt that she could do nothing to promote
Negro activities there. She did not approve of the suggestion of turning over
Armour Square to the Negroes as the best way of solving the problem. She
thought this would resvdt in ill feeling and trouble, since there was a well-
established tradition that the whites should use Armour Square to the fullest
extent. But since the Negroes had no such recreation center as Armour
Square available to them, she beUeved that a new center with fuU equipment
should be started in a neighborhood part white and part Negro with the under-
standing that it should be a Negro recreation center where the whites were
welcome if they wished to come. She thought that white people would patron-
ize such a recreation center and, with careful leadership, would mingle with
the Negroes on friendly and peaceable terms.
Two recreation-center directors favored entirely separate recreational
facilities for Negroes with whites excluded. One of these was the director
RACIAL CONTACTS 295
of Fuller Park, who told the Coromission that he had made every effort to get
Negroes to come to the park, and that he considered it part of his duty to go
out into the neighborhood and try to get Negroes to use the park. "Separate
parks and playgrounds for colored people are advisable, " he said, " not because
one group is any better than the other, but because they are different. Human
nature will have to be remodeled before racial antipathy is overcome."
The director of Hardin Square, another recreation center Uttle used by
Negroes, though it is near the main Negro area, beheved that separate facihties
for each race would be the best solution of the problem. He did not encourage
Negroes to come to Hardin Square. The poUceman at the park also beheved
that "you can't make the two colors mix." This policeman said he knows
a group of young men in the district, mostly ex-service men, who wovdd
"procure arms and fight shoulder to shoulder with me if a Negro should say
one word back to me or should say a word to a white woman." He thought
it would not take much to start another riot, and that the white people of the
district would resolve to make a "complete clean-up this time." This police-
man is the one whose failure to arrest a white man accused of stoning the Negro
boy, WiUiams, at the Twenty-sixth Street Beach was an important factor in pre-
cipitating the riot in 19 19.
The director of Moseley Playground, who was born and raised in that
vicinity, said there had been antagonism between the two races in that neigh-
borhood for thirty years. He beheved that separate recreation facihties
would be impracticable because the taxpayers could not be divided in such a
way that they would not be paying for fields their children could not use.
The director of Seward Park thought that it might be arranged in the
small parks to give special hours to Negro groups. This would meet what
he beheved to be the desire of the Negroes to be by themselves and also the
objection of the white girls who had protested against having Negro girls in
the same g3rmnasium classes with them.
V. TRAINING FOR RECREATION DmECTORS
The importance of the personahty of the park director in determining
the conditions in the park, which was often emphasized, led to a consideration
of the training for the work — ^whether training was required that would develop
the understanding and vision necessary to handle the problems involved in
racial contacts. The representative of the Municipal Bureau said that every
effort had been made to get trained men, but that there was no school or curricu-
Inm of training that determined the efficiency of a person in charge. Some
of his best directors had had no specific training, while some of the poorest
came from the best recreational training schools.
Few Negro instructors were found at the places of recreation and these
were employed by the Municipal Bureau. The representative of the West
Side Commission said that he had been tr)dng for a long time without success
296 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
to get a Negro to take the civil-service examination for playground instructors,
as he was anxious to get a Negro for Union Park. The representatives of the
Lincoln and South Park commissions said that they used Negroes only as
life guards, attendants, janitors, etc. The South Park Commission represent-
ative said the question of the desirability of having Negro instructors and play
leaders had never come up, because no Negro had ever become a candidate
for a position as a result of the competitive examinations.
Training opportunities for Negroes. — It was found that the Y.M.C.A. has
a f oiur-year recreational training-course in which no distinction is made between
Negroes and whites. As the courses are not open to women, the Y.M.C.A.
has no such race problem as arises in recreation coiurses where women are
admitted. The president of the graduating class at the Y.M.C.A. College
the year previous was a Negro, though the rest of the class was composed
entirely of whites. The number of Negroes taking the Y.M.C.A. recreation
course is relatively small, usually about two in a class of 150.
The American College of Physical Education and the Chicago Normal
School of Physical Education reported that they did not admit Negroes to
any courses, saying that their students would object to physical contact with
Negroes.
The Recreation Training School of Chicago, successor to the Recreation
Department of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, admits Negroes
to the recreation course on the same terms as aU other students and has trained
several, both in the short courses and in the full year's course. This school
admits both men and women.
Vr. SUMMARY
Though the Negro areas are as well supplied with ordiaary playgrounds
as the rest of the city, they are noticeably lacking in more complete recreation
centers with indoor facilities for the use of older children and adults. Several
of these recreation centers, such as Hardin, Armour, and FuUer squares,
Stanton and Ogden parks, border on Negro areas but are not used to any great
extent by Negroes because the Negroes feel that the whites object to their
presence. Though there are three publicly maintained beaches within the
main Negro area the Negroes feel free to use only the Twenty-sixth Street
Beach, though many of them live as far south as Sixty-sixth Street. Where
Negroes do not use nearby facilities to any great extent they have usually
either been given to understand, through unoflScial discrimination, that they
are not desired, or they have been terrorized by gangs of white boys.
Few attempts to encourage Negro attendance have been made, and with the
exception of Union Park these attempts have failed.
In the main there seem to be no difficulties arising from contacts between
young white and Negro children at the playgrounds, no matter whether the
playground is predominantly white or predominantly Negro, with the excep-
tion of one or two playgrounds, such as Sherwood and Moseley, which seem
RACIAL CONTACTS 297
to share in traditional neighborhood antagonism between the two races.
Voluntary racial grouping at the playground was found only in rare instances
and usually involved the older rather than the younger children. The
swimming-pools, for example, are patronized more by older children, and
voluntary racial grouping at swimming-pools was reported in several instances.
In the ordinary playground sports and athletic contests the two races mingle
with the best of feeling.
Voluntary racial groupings and serious clashes are foimd mainly at the
places of recreation patronized by older children and adults — the large parks,
beaches, and recreation centers. Trouble is usually started by gangs of white
boys, organized and unorganized. The members of so-called "athletic clubs,"
whose rooms usually border on the park, are the worst offenders in this respect.
If they do not reflect the community feeling they are at least tolerated by it,
as nothing is done to suppress them. Some park authorities that have made
sincere efforts to have these hoodlums punished are discouraged because
they get no co-operation from the courts, and the policeman who takes the
boy to court gets a reprimand, while the boy is dismissed.
Another source of racial disorder is the lack of co-ordination between
park and city police. The park police stop a fight between a white chUd and a
Negro child and send them from the park. Outside the park gates the children
start fighting again, and the park police have no power to interfere. The
spectators may then get into the fight, dividing along racial lines, and before
the city police can be summoned a race riot may be well imder way. Either
city police should be stationed directly outside every park, ready to co-operate
with the park police, or else the jurisdiction of the park poUce should be
extended to include the area immediately surrounding the park.
The most important remedies suggested to the Commission for the better-
ment of relations between Negroes and whites at the various places of recreation
were: (i) additional facilities in Negro areas, particularly recreation centers
which can be used by adults; (2) an awakened pubHc opinion which will refuse
longer to tolerate the hoodlum and wiU insist that the courts properly punish
such offenders; (3) selection of directors for parks in neighborhoods where
there is a critical situation who will have a sympathetic understanding of the
problem and wUl not tolerate actions by park police ofl&cers and other subordi-
nate ofloicials tending to discourage Negro attendance; and (4) efforts by such
directors to repress and remove any racial antagonism that may arise in the
neighborhood about the park.
D. CONTACTS IN TRANSPORTATION
I. INTRODUCTION
Volume of traffic. — ^The number of passengers carried in 1916 in a twenty-
four-hour day by the Chicago surface lines was 3,500,000 and by the elevated
railway lines 560,000, according to a tabulation made by the Chicago Traction
298 THE NEGRO IN CHICAGO
and Subway Commission in 1916. With the city's growth in population the
traffic in 1920 doubtless showed an even larger volume. This traffic is distrib-
uted over approximately 1,050 miles of surface and 142 miles of elevated
track. It is most congested in the "Loop" area of the downtown business
section, which is a transfer center for the three sides of the city. North, South,
and West; and of course it is heaviest at the hours when people go to and
from work.
Concentration of Negro traffic. — Negroes constitute 4 per cent of the city's
population, according to the federal census for 1920, and presumably about
that percentage of the city's street-car traffic. The Negro traffic, however,
instead of being scattered all over the city, is mainly concentrated upon twelve
lines which traverse the Negro residence areas and connect them with the
manufacturing districts where Negroes are largely employed. These twelve
lines, which are shown on the two transportation diagrams facing page 300, cover
II per cent of the total mileage of the surface and elevated lines. Because
of this concentration, however, the proportion of Negroes to whites on these
twelve lines is much higher than 4 per cent, and on such lines as that on State
Street, which runs along the principal business street of the main South Side
Negro residence area, it often happens that the majority of the passengers
are Negroes. In addition to these twelve lines of heaviest Negro traffic, there
are others traversing less densely populated parts of Negro residence areas.
In varying degrees contacts of Negroes and whites may be found on other lines
which serve the small proportion of the Negro population scattered throughout
the city.
The main area of Negro residence, on the South Side, where about 90
per cent of the Negroes in Chicago live, is traversed by the State Street, Indiana
Avenue, Cottage Grove Avenue, Stony Island Avenue, and the South Side
elevated lines, ruiming north and south, and by eleven cross-town lines, nmniag
east and west, beginning with the Twenty-second Street line at the north and
ending with the Seventy-first Street line at the south. From six to nine
o'clock in the morning, and from four to six o'clock in the afternoon, there is
a heavy Negro traffic on the Unes going north to the "Loop," on the Cottage
Grove Avenue line going south to the South Chicago manufacturing district,
and on the Thirty-fifth Street and Forty-seventh Street lines and the elevated
branch line at Fortieth Street going west to the Stock Yards. To reach the
Stock Yards, Negro laborers must ride through a territory between Wentworth
Avenue and Halsted Street in which, as shown in the sections of the report
dealing with housing and with racial clashes, hostihty toward Negroes has often
been displayed. This Negro traffic west of Wentworth Avenue is, therefore,
chiefly confined to a few hours in the morning and the afternoon.
The West Side Negro residence area is connected with the "Loop" by the
Madison Street and Lake Street surface lines, and the elevated line on Lake
Street, and with the Stock Yards by the Halsted Street and Ashland Avenue lines.
RACIAL CONTACTS 299
The North Side Negro residence area is connected with the "Loop" by
the lines on State and Clark streets and by the Northwestern elevated lines.
Contacts on these lines, however, are not as important as on the lines serving
the South and West Side areas, because the number of Negroes involved is
only about 1,500, or less than 2 per cent of the Negro population.
Contacts and racial attitudes. — ^As in other northern cities, there is no "Jim
Crow" separation of the races on street cars in Chicago. The contacts of
Negroes and whites on the street cars never provoked any considerable dis-
cussion until the period of Negro migration from the South, when occasional
stories of clashes began to be circulated, but only one such incident was re-
ported in the newspapers. Even since the migration began there have been
few complaints based upon racial friction in transportation contacts.
In response to inquiries, the South Side Elevated Company, which has the
largest Negro traffic of any elevated line, repUed that except during the riot
in 1919, when a few cases of racial disorder were reported, there had been no
complaints from motormen or trainmen since 191 8, when a trainman was cut
by a Negro but not seriously injured. No complaints from white passengers
had been received since the spring of 1917, when white office workers objected
to riding with Stock Yards laborers, mainly Negroes, on the Stock Yards spur
of the elevated. White laborers in the Stock Yards mostly hved within walking
distance of their work, but Negroes found it necessary to use car hnes running
east to the main Negro-residence area. The Chicago Surface Lines repUed
that complaints due to racial friction were negUgible.
Information obtained by investigators for the Commission showed that
the attitude of Negroes and whites toward each other was being affected by
contacts on the cars. A white woman in the Hyde Park district, an officer
of the Illinois Federation of Woman's Clubs, when interviewed upon race
relations, made special reference to transportation contacts. She said:
While Negroes are coming into this neighborhood, especially on Lake Park,
I see little of them, except on the street car. There I must say I have a decided
opinion. Just last evening around five o'clock, I took a Lake Park car at Fortieth
Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, and several colored men saw to it that they were
first to board the car. I had to sit near the front and a great big Negro man sat next
to me, smoking a cigar right in the car. I told my husband when I got home, I was
for moving them aU out of the city, and I never felt like that toward them until just
of late. There's a feeUng of resentment among us white people toward the colored
people on the cars, and they feel that, and they feel the same resentment toward us.
I think I see that very plainly. Last night, on this same car, a colored man was
hanging over me, and I know he didn't wa